Kevin De Bruyne leads the way as Manchester City thrash Stoke 7-2

Something fairly amazing happened in the 27th minute of this latest Manchester City goalfest. A slick first-time passing move produced an unanswerable goal for the home side, but a bamboozled Stoke City defence was already wearily familiar with that routine. What shocked about the third goal was that Kevin De Bruyne was not behind it.

The Belgian has been the inspiration behind much of what Manchester City have produced this season, yet here were his fellow forwards pinging the ball about with accuracy and imagination without him. Gabriel Jesus found Leroy Sané on the left, his firm cross was instinctively caught and turned back in a single touch by Raheem Sterling, which left David Silva the relatively simple task of arriving on the six-yard line to become the third different scorer of the afternoon.

Even by that stage, supporters in the posh new Tunnel Club seats were beginning to turn their back on the action to take selfies. In fairness, in under half an hour they had already witnessed the best of the De Bruyne show. “Kevin is a big talent, he’s dynamic and aggressive,” Pep Guardiola said. “When he gets possession with space ahead of him our forwards know to get moving because the ball is coming.”

Not only the forwards, as it happens. For the first goal the visitors were slow to react to the danger when De Bruyne advanced with the ball, biding his time until Kyle Walker came steaming up on his inside to run behind Kevin Wimmer. Once De Bruyne knew he was ready the weight on his pass was perfect, leaving the right-back to cut the ball back from the goalline for Jesus to hook past Jack Butland.

Before Stoke had fully recovered their composure Manchester City struck again with another quality passing move. This time a disguised reverse pass from De Bruyne, quite possibly his most exquisite of the afternoon, set Sané free on the left with Jesus and Sterling practically queuing up in front of goal. Sané found the latter and Sterling came up with a composed finish. With David Silva missing an inviting opening just before his goal and De Bruyne bringing a fingertip save from Butland right on the stroke of half-time, Stoke could hardly have complained if they had turned round four or five goals in arrears.

Remarkably, thanks to a determined run and shot from Mame Diouf and a neat return pass from Jesé, the interval deficit was just two. Stoke had managed to score with their only real attack of the first half and having had 16% of possession by that point, but it came at exactly the right time to remind all present this might not be the expected procession after all. That impression was only strengthened when Stoke opened the second half with another goal, Diouf reaching a Tom Edwards cross to score with the help of a significant deflection off Walker, though that was as good as the afternoon got for Mark Hughes and his 18-year-old debutant.

Edwards did not enjoy the easiest of Premier League introductions trying to keep tabs on Sané, and though he must have been pleased with an assist his afternoon ended prematurely when an over-enthusiastic Fabian Delph challenge saw him depart on a stretcher with an ankle injury.

Stoke never looked as threatening again and the home side regained control with ridiculous ease thanks to another burst of three quick goals. De Bruyne had a hand in them all, and though Stoke only had themselves to blame for the mix-up that led to the first, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the midfielder’s searching ball into the area and even more to admire in a dazzling first time finish from Jesus.

Fernandinho was next, taking a pass from De Bruyne via Delph to hammer home a long shot, and if Belgian influence on that occasion was minimal normal service was resumed with the sixth goal. A delightful diagonal ball left Sané an opportunity he could hardly miss, a fact not lost on a crowd who celebrated by singing De Bruyne’s name rather than that of the goalscorer.

“De Bruyne is head and shoulders above anyone else in the Premier League,” Hughes said, unashamedly joining in the chorus of appreciation. “I have to be honest, some of their goals today were outstanding, almost impossible to defend against because of the quality of the passing. We weren’t at our best but we came up against an exceptional side full of world-class players.”

Stoke were as good as on the bus home by the time Sterling and Bernardo Silva combined for a seventh goal. Guardiola had withdrawn De Bruyne by then, but even with only 66 minutes on the pitch there was no question who was man of the match. “I cannot deny that was one of the best team performances I have seen here,” Guardiola said approvingly.

“We played quick and we played simple, and I hope we can play as well in the next game against Napoli.” Tuesday’s Champions League fixture is likely to be a much sterner test for free-scoring City, but credit where it is due. There is no need for any further speculation about whether or not Guardiola can do it against Stoke.