Manchester City may have been without Erling Haaland but Pep Guardiola’s side are so awash with talent that it just meant another of their stars came to the fore. City’s pass-o-meter was almost off the scale – Guardiola’s side completed almost twice as many as a Leicester side set up to frustrate and flummox – but in the end Kevin De Bruyne’s majestic second-half free-kick, which cannoned in off a post, proved the difference as the champions moved top of the pile.
Guardiola, in a green hoodie, dark jeans and white trainers, spent the final couple of minutes crouched on the edge of his technical area but Leicester’s late attempts to turn up the heat would not deny De Bruyne the satisfaction of being the match-winner. “We have had seven seasons together,” Guardiola said of the midfielder. “Except sleep together we have done everything. I know him quite well so nothing’s going to change my opinion of him or what he has done for this club [and] for me personally. But I have the duty in my job to say: ‘I want more.’ We want this Kevin, we need this Kevin.”
