Manchester City thrash Watford 5-1; Gabriel Jesus scores a hattrick

Manchester City was extremely dominant over Watford from start to finish. They easily sliced through Watford's defense to score three goals in the first half. They had controlled 74% of the ball and took 21 shots compared to 26% possession and just five shots by Watford.

The win puts Manchester City four points ahead of runner ups Liverpool in the race for the Premier League title. Although, the Reds have one more match left compared to City.

Gabriel Jesus in the 4th, 23rd, 49th, and 53rd minute and Rodri in the 34th minute were the goal scorers for Manchester City, while Hassane Kamara in the 28th minute was the sole goal scorer for Watford.

Manchester City went into the first half aggressively, getting an early lead with a goal by Gabriel Jesus on a low cross from Ukrainian midfielder Oleksandr Zinchenko. In the 23rd minute, Gabriel Jesus doubled the lead for City with a brilliant header past Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster after receiving a sensational cross from Kevin de Bruyne. Just five minutes later, Hassane Kamara scored the first and only goal of Watford in the match with a 15-yard strike into the bottom corner of the net after receiving a curled through-ball from Nigerian attacker Emmanuel Dennis taking the score to 2-1. 

Manchester City's goalscoring spree wasn’t over yet. Rodri scored the third goal of the match for City in the 34th minute. The goal-packed first half ended with a 3-1 lead for the Sky Blues.

Gabriel Jesus was unstoppable. He scored his third goal of the match four minutes into the second half with a spectacular penalty, completing his hat trick. He further increased the lead for Manchester City with a calm shot on an assist from Kevin de Bruyne. The second half ended with an epic 5-1 victory for Manchester City.

Gabriel Jesus, who has started less than half of Manchester City’s matches this season, was the hero of the match. He commented, “Today was my day, we played very well, made passes and passes to create and were good on the finishing.

"It was my first hat-trick in the Premier League. Sometimes I have scored two and then hit the post or had a shot blocked or saved. 

“ Kevin [De Bruyne] is an amazing player and gave me a very good cross. We can't look at Liverpool. They can win all their games but we are in front so we have to do our jobs.”