Suddenly
there is an impetus to Manchester City’s season, a verve, a velocity, a
samba swagger, a one-touch destructiveness. The introduction of Gabriel
Jesus, the 19-year-old who cost
£27million, has made a devastating
difference.
A new star has arrived in the Premier League as Jesus took Sergio
Aguero’s place and, just maybe, the first step to taking his long-held
mantle as the league’s best striker as he also claimed his first goal in
English football.
That may all be wildly premature but, now, we see what all the fuss is about, why Pep Guardiola
had such faith in the Brazilian forward with the thick, furrowed brow
but who plays with an astonishing sharpness and freedom. A forward line
of Jesus, 21-year-old Leroy Sane and 22-year-old Raheem Sterling was a
glimpse of the future and was too much in the present for West Ham.
“It’s like a water melon,” Guardiola later said of Jesus. “You have to
open and see it.” This was an appetising, fresh glimpse.
City have now played Slaven Bilic’s side three times this season with
an aggregate score of 12-1. They have faced them twice in this stadium
in the last month alone, claiming nine goals. On such a vast pitch, in
such a big arena, and with West Ham playing so open – why was Michail
Antonio so far forward? – they simply could not get close with the speed
of City’s play breath-taking in a stunning first-half.
It was a result that drew City level with fourth-placed Liverpool and
just a point behind Tottenham Hotspur in second and on this kind of
evidence they could go on a run that might just shake up the title race.
In the directors box, indeed, was Chelsea manager Antonio Conte and he
also knows that City now have a favourable sequence of league fixtures.
This could – just – get interesting although obviously it remains in
Conte’s iron grip.
Yaya Toure makes it 4-0 from the penalty spot
Jesus
arrived in the January window and has been put straight in by Guardiola -
before this he had delivered an eye-catching cameo against Spurs and an
impressive start in the FA Cup – with Aguero on the bench, dropped,
rested, but left out whatever the reason and he has a fight on his hands
to remain top striker.
Both players were on the pitch at the end, with Jesus pushed wide in
that front three, but he appeared more effective through the middle. He,
most definitely, is a challenger to Aguero’s previous supremacy
especially with the sense that he stylistically may be more to
Guardiola’s liking.
There was another big call by the City manager – and an obvious, overdue one. He dropped Claudio Bravo
and it had to happen given the goalkeeper’s appalling, jittery form
summed up in one damning statistic: from nine shots on target he has
faced in 2017 he has saved just one.