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Rob dawsonCorrespondent
MANCHESTER – Manchester City are lucky to have reached a deal for Ruben Dias because Benfica might have been tempted to raise the price after Jamie Vardy went wild in Leicester’s 5-2 win at the Etihad Stadium.
Dias is slated to move to Manchester in a deal that will cost around € 71 million, while Nicolas Otamendi is heading in the opposite direction in a separate deal worth around € 15 million. For Pep Guardiola, it cannot be completed quickly enough.
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Against Leicester, he saw City lose their first home game of a season in the top flight for the first time since 1989. He also saw Vardy play his team again, one day Guardiola was forced to start without a forward. Recognized because of the injuries to Sergio Agüero and Gabriel Jesús, Vardy showed the courage of a bona fide poacher. He scored three times, two of his own penalties, to bring his account against Guardiola’s City to nine. No player has scored more.
“We fought Vardy,” Guardiola said afterward in an early attempt to understate the season.
It looked like City was heading for a routine victory at home as Riyad Mahrez scored against his former club after three minutes with a spectacular shot that shot into the top corner. Then Vardy took over.
Ten minutes before the break, the 33-year-old was thrown after an awkward challenge from Kyle Walker and sent the penalty high into the net. His second shortly after the break was the best of all.
He seemed short on space when a low cross from Timothy Castagne from the right hit him at the near post, but it didn’t matter as he produced a cheeky move to lift the ball over a puzzled Ederson. Vardy’s third was another penalty as City couldn’t deal with his lightning move again and Eric Garcia, who had a good game up to that point, cut off his heels. This time he went to Ederson’s right to become the oldest player to score a Premier. Hat trick in the league since Teddy Sheringham in 2003.
James Maddison came off the bench to make the four by beating Ederson from 20 yards and although Nathan Ake pulled one back with his first City goal, Leicester made it 5-2 with his third penalty of the afternoon after Benjamin Mendy committed. a foul on Maddison. Vardy had already limped off and the onus fell on Youri Tielemans for Leicester to become the first team to score five goals against a team led by Guardiola in his 686 managerial appearances. Leicester, meanwhile, is leading the league after three wins out of three.
“We played very well in the first 30 minutes,” Guardiola said. “We scored early on and I think they defended really deep, so it wasn’t easy.
“In this situation it happened many times so we have to control the counterattack and I think that today the problem was that we put more pressure on ourselves to score the second or third when they just didn’t want to play, they just wanted to defend and play the counterattack and only in that position. we have to be calmer.
“Of course when you have the players to attack the area we need. We were eager to attack and we say that we are not creating chances, we got nervous and then we gave three penalties. And when you do that you can’t.”
Guardiola will hope that the solution to his problems is already on the way. City looked to Napoli’s Kalidou Koulibaly and Atlético de Madrid’s José Giménez to strengthen the defense, but after being put off by the price tags, soccer director Txiki Begiristain has turned to Dias.
The Portugal international has been scouted by Manchester United in the past, but City is the one who will steer him away from Benfica, helped in part by his willingness to take Otamendi.
Aymeric Laporte will also help. The Frenchman is yet to play this season after testing positive for COVID-19 over the summer and was only fit enough for a bench spot against Leicester. After another full week of training, you can expect to be back in the squad for the trip to Leeds United on Saturday. Judging by Guardiola’s near-constant instructions to Ake, the Dutchman, a £ 40m transfer from Bournemouth, is slow to catch up.
It didn’t help Ake and the rest of the defense that Guardiola decided to trade Fernandinho for 17-year-old forward Liam Delap at 1-1, but the Spaniard cannot be held responsible for the lack of a basic defense. All three penalties were awarded after their players got on the wrong side of a Leicester attacker.
Asked after the final whistle about Dias’ imminent arrival, Guardiola said: “It is not official. Let me wait until it is official, then I will give you a statement.” After a disastrous day, you will expect it to be sooner rather than later.
