Manchester City moves clear of Liverpool as Kevin de Bruyne single-handedly demolishes the Wolves

Midfield genius Kevin De Bruyne scored four goals on Wednesday in a 5-1 win at Wolves to put his team in a commanding position to retain the Premier League with two games remaining.

With a 2-1 win over Aston Villa on Tuesday, Liverpool had tied the defending champions. Still, De Bruyne single-handedly boosted Manchester City into sole possession of the top spot with 89 points from 36 matches.

Kevin De Bruyne hits four for Manchester City and misses fifth.

Manchester City took the lead in the seventh minute when De Bruyne readily shot past Jose Sa, Wolves' keeper, from a Bernardo Silva through ball.

Chiquinho scored the equalizer for the hosts shortly after the City opener. Leander Dendoncker's perfectly weighted cross to the top of the area completed the classic counter-attacking goal.

Manchester City took the lead just after the quarter-hour mark. De Bruyne scored his second goal when Sa parried the ball into his path to be fired into a wide-open net.

The Belgian international completed his first-half hat-trick before the 25th minute. He cut across the penalty area and blasted a shot from a distance at Sa's far post, giving Manchester City a 3-1 lead.

This completed a 24-minute hat trick, all of which he scored with his weaker left leg. This is the third fastest hat-trick by a player to start a match in Premier League history. The fastest two were Sadio Mane's hat-trick against Aston Villa in May 2015 in under 16 minutes and Manchester United's Dwight Yorke's hat-trick against Arsenal in February 2001 (22 minutes).

De Bruyne scored a hat trick in the first 24 minutes and added a fourth right when Wolves' counter-attacking speed started to trouble Manchester City. Phil Foden's perfectly weighted pass could have been number five in 67 minutes, but the ball struck the goalpost.

Wolves could not recover and finished in eighth place with 50 points after playing 36 games. Raheem Sterling added a fifth goal for Manchester City, bringing them to the final score.

Manchester City creates a cushion at the top.

Manchester City's goal advantage is up to seven, and they have scored 22 goals in their past five league games, becoming the first team in England's top flight to win five straight matches by at least three goals.

Despite needing four points from matches at West Ham and at home against Aston Villa to win the title, Manchester City effectively has an extra point because of their better goal difference: Liverpool must overcome a seven-goal deficit and Manchester City's three-point cushion to win the title.