Man City gain big Liverpool advantage as Kevin De Bruyne leads title charge vs Newcastle

Kevin De Bruyne led the charge back to the summit of the Premier League as Manchester City banished the Bernabeu blues. And with five goals in the bag, they not only opened a three-point gap on Liverpool at the top, they also overturned the goal difference advantage that the Merseysiders held.

Belgium international De Bruyne, who had been strangely out of sorts in Madrid, was an unstoppable force of nature as resurgent Newcastle sought to cause an upset that would have been celebrated by the Mersey as fervently as it would on the banks of the Tyne. He drove City forward from the off, thrusting deep into Toon territory and delivering passes, long and short, of impeccable weight and timing.

The fear was that the Etihad might be flat after the traumas of Wednesday night, another crushing blow at the sharp end of a Champions League campaign. But Liverpool’s stumble against Spurs the night before, and a gloriously sunny Manchester afternoon served to put the world to rights and restore a sense of perspective.

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The incentive is still for the Blues to add their name to an elite band of clubs that have won four out of five English league titles, and both the fans and the players knew that four wins from the remaining four games would ensure that was the case.

There was talk before the game that City would be seeking a leader, a Vincent Kompany figure, to lift them and stir them from their disappointment, if they needed it. They got a leader alright, but it was the unassuming figure of De Bruyne that picked up the club standard, which had been trodden into the Bernabeu turf in the space of 10 bewildering minutes, and carried it back into the fight.

The Belgian was strangely subdued in Madrid,