Kevin de Bruyne has stated that it’s going to be a ‘hell of a race’ for the Premier League title between Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea after his side scored seven past Leeds on Tuesday night, as he told BT Sport.
The Manchester City midfielder also shared how the above scoreline has ‘obviously’ helped his team close the gap to Liverpool, in terms of the goal difference, as they sit above them in the table.
De Bruyne netted a brace during the game, including scoring a quite stunning 30-yard rocket that nearly took the bolts off the net.
In terms of goals scored, no-one has been free-scoring as Liverpool because they have found the back of the net on 45 occasions, five more than Pep Guardiola’s men, despite yesterday’s scoreline.
As a result of that, Jurgen Klopp’s side have a goal difference of +12, but the Cityzens are now on +9 and slowly creeping closer – and given the way the title race is headed, you never know what it might come down to.
Added with that, they are four points ahead of the Reds in the table and five ahead of Chelsea, so three points for those two sides during their midweek games will only close the gap.
Nonetheless, this is what de Bruyne had to say about Liverpool and his title rivals after they well and truly thrashed Leeds.
On the goal difference between them and Liverpool: “Yes, but now for the moment we just have to maintain the good level and try to win game by game,” said De Bruyne.
“Obviously it helps (the goal difference). But that is something that can help at the end of the year (season). That’s not something we should think about.
On title race: “It’s one hell of a competition. Even outside the top three, it’s very hard to win every game and you saw a lot of games, like Wolves and West Ham, where you win with one goal difference.
“It’s still going to be a hell of a race this year, but we are going to try.”
Manchester City have done their job for this set of fixtures and now it’s Liverpool and Chelsea’s turn to respond.
Both Liverpool and Chelsea will be in action on Thursday, with the Merseyside club taking on Newcastle and Thomas Tuchel pitting his tactical wits against Rafa Benitez.
Just like Leeds, given where the above duo are in the table and their recent form, this should be a straightforward three points.
But this is where the twists and turns happen, where teams start to falter and open doors that would usually be shut.
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