(Football news) Despite a COVID-19 outbreak in the Manchester City camp, the Premier League leaders comfortably swept aside Swindon Town 4-1 at the County Ground. City manager Pep Guardiola, assistant Juan Manuel Lillo along with 20 other staff members including seven first team players were missing after testing positive for COVID-19 but it seemed to have no influence on the result.

There was speculation that City may field a team full of youngsters but Pep Guardiola named his strongest XI with just four changes from the team that defeated Arsenal. Ilkay Gundogan, Zack Steffen, Cole Palmer and Kyle Walker were the only changes in City’s squad. For Swindon, goalkeeper Joe Wollacott is unavailable due to AFCON duty which meant Lewis Ward started in goal while Jack Payne and Matthieu Baudry were unavailable due to injuries.

As expected, City dominated possession and took the lead in the 14th minute when Palmer assisted Silva with a pass into the box and the latter tapped in from close range to give his side the lead. The visitors then doubled the advantage when Gabriel Jesus scored past Lewis Ward at the half hour mark after being assisted by Kevin De Bruyne who won the ball and passed it to his Brazilian team mate.

It was a men against boys battle for the majority of the match despite Swindon’s efforts to remain in the fixture and Gundogan subsequently scored City’s third in the 58th minute after the visitors were awarded a free kick 30 yards out which the German curled into the bottom corner. Jesus could have scored City’s fourth goal after missing a penalty as his stuttering run-up and weak shot was saved by Ward.

Swindon Town did manage to score a consolation goal in the 78th minute when they caught the Premier League champions on the break with McKirdy scoring his fifth goal in two matches. However, City managed to restore their three goal cushion just four minutes later as Palmer scored from a tight angle into the top corner. Swindon Town will next face Mansfield Town in League Two while Man City host Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday, January 15th.

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