Man City on a roll; Ronaldo's miserable form continues

Ronaldo has now failed to score in any of his last six appearances — something he has not endured at club level since January 2009

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola refused to get carried away despite his team restoring their 12-point lead over Liverpool with a thumping 4-0 win at Norwich City.

Raheem Sterling scored a hat-trick with Phil Foden also on target.

Sterling had failed to score in his last five appearances for City but curled home a fine finish to break Norwich’s resistance after 31 minutes at Carrow Road.

When Foden bundled in City’s second in the 48th minute the result was a formality but Sterling provided some gloss with a header and then converted a rebound after his penalty had been kept out by home keeper Angus Gunn.

City have now won 14 of their last 15 Premier League games, drawing the other.

“We need a lot of points. We know what rival we have, the closest one is Liverpool,” Guardiola, whose side have 63 of the 90 plus points he says they will need, said.

“(Liverpool) won’t drop many points for the quality they have. It’s the best squad they have in the last decade. We’ll have to win a lot of games.”

Man United’s woes

While City motor on, Manchester United, which drew 1-1 with Southampton, appear to be stuck in a rut under interim manager Ralf Rangnick who will soon have a decision to make about Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese has now failed to score in any of his last six appearances in all competitions — something he has not endured at club level since January 2009.

“He would have wished to score, I would have too,” Rangnick said. “Today he had his chances, with one cleared off the line, and had good moments in the second half.

“Again, it is not only Cristiano but as a team we create enough chances but cannot score. It is a major problem.”