Manchester City show why Premier League is theirs to lose, though the flaws are there

MANCHESTER, England — For the first 25 minutes at the Etihad Stadium on Boxing Day, Manchester City showed why they’re favourites to win the Premier League title again this season. Then, for the opening 20 minutes of the second half, they showed why they might not.

Pep Guardiola’s side barely had to sweat out their Christmas dinner to score four times inside half an hour against Leicester City. Had it not been for two expert saves from Kasper Schmeichel and a couple of near-misses, they could have had eight before half-time.

But then came a reminder that even City are capable of shooting themselves in the foot, and when Leicester scored for a third time in just 10 minutes after the break to make it 4-3, there were some worried faces among the home fans — perhaps remembering that famous 4-4 draw between Newcastle and Arsenal more than a decade ago.

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The panic was short-lived thanks to two more City goals to make it 6-3, but over the course of the game they had not been as dominant as the scoreline suggested or, indeed, as Guardiola would have hoped for, particularly after such a fast start.

“It was a roller-coaster, a typical Boxing Day with a lot of goals, for everyone it was an entertaining game,” said Guardiola afterwards. “It was a nice game to watch and three more points. We keep going. The quality of players we have produced this amount of actions to score goals. No manager and tactics can solve it without the quality.

“It was weird. Even at 4-0 in the first half, every time they had the ball they arrived in the final third delivering good passes. They moved a lot of players. They have a lot of quality. They…