De Bruyne scores four as Man City go three clear

Kevin De Bruyne scored four goals as Manchester City overwhelmed Wolves 5-1 at Molineux to go three points clear at the top of the Premier League table and move within four points of the title

The Belgian took just 24 minutes to complete his hat-trick, making Leander Dendoncker's early equaliser irrelevant, before adding a fourth goal in the second half.

Raheem Sterling scored a fifth but this night belonged to one man. It was a masterclass from the midfielder - his first-half triple all coming with his left foot - with the win restoring City's three-point advantage over Liverpool with two games to go.

Pep Guardiola will not have been pleased to see Aymeric Laporte trudge off injured, adding to his side's personnel problems at the back. However, with four points needed from their remaining games to guarantee top spot, this was a huge step towards retaining the title.

It did not take long for City to underline their superiority. Bernardo Silva threading the ball in behind the defence and De Bruyne passing his shot into the far corner of the net. If there was a surprise it is that Wolves managed to find a quick-fire response of their own.

Raul Jimenez led a swift counter-attack, feeding Pedro Neto in the left channel and the young forward squared the ball to the onrushing Dendoncker who beat Ederson with a low shot to the goalkeeper's left. Molineux erupted and - briefly - the home side had hope.

De Bruyne soon put a stop to that. It was his clever dink towards Sterling that caused confusion in the Wolves defence and the Belgian was quick to latch onto the loose ball in the aftermath with his deflected shot finding the roof of Jose Sa's net.

City were purring by that point and the third goal was the pick of the bunch -