Manchester City moved ahead of Arsenal and Liverpool to the top of the Premier League with a routine 5-1 victory over Luton.
With their title rivals both playing on Super Sunday, Pep Guardiola’s side made no mistake against the relegation strugglers, taking just 90 seconds to open the scoring when Erling Haaland’s effort deflected in off the unfortunate Daiki Hashioka.
It was one-way traffic for the majority of the game with City’s first-half haul of 51 touches in the Luton box the most ever recorded in a first half of a Premier League game since Opta started capturing the data.
They had to wait until 64 minutes for the second but it was worth the wait when Mateo Kovacic found the top corner with a fantastic strike. Haaland then grabbed his 20th Premier League goal of the season from the penalty spot before Ross Barkley pulled one back for Luton.
That only poked the beast as City scored two late goals through Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol which rubber-stamped the easy win.
How City reached the Premier League summit…
Rodri, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva and John Stones sat out as Pep Guardiola rotated ahead of their second leg with Real Madrid while goalkeeper Ederson replaced Stefan Ortega.
Kyle Walker was also on the bench after recovering from injury.
City were in no mood for making this a difficult afternoon and were ahead inside two minutes.
Thomas Kaminski did well to save after Haaland had been played through by Kevin de Bruyne but he was eventually beaten when Haaland’s acrobatic volley was heading well wide until it took a huge deflection off Hashioka’s head and ended up in the net.
Luton offered nothing as an attacking threat but defended with great determination.
Kaminski parried a powerful effort from Gvardiol before also collecting efforts from Matheus Nunes, De Bruyne and Ruben Dias.
It felt like a training exercise for City at times and City finally doubled the lead with a Kovavic thunderbolt just after the hour as the Croatian hit an unstoppable effort from the edge of the area.
Luton responded with their first meaningful attack, and Fred Onyedinma pulled the ball back for Cauley Woodrow, but the substitute fired against the bar.
Normal service was soon resumed with the lively Doku winning a penalty after tricking and being brought down by Onyedinma. Haaland calmly sent Kaminski the wrong way.
Barkley pulled one back but City finished with a strong surge in the final furlong.
Doku got the goal his performance merited, slaloming past some desperate Luton defending and sliding into the corner before Gvardiol hammered home his second goal in a week.
Over to you, Liverpool and Arsenal.
Opta stats: Haaland hits 20 goals
What’s next?
Manchester City will host the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid on Wednesday April 17. The first leg finished 3-3. Kick-off 8pm.
City then face Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday April 20 in the FA Cup semi-finals at 5.15pm. Pep Guardiola’s side returns to Premier League action on Thursday April 25 at Brighton, live on Sky Sports. Kick-off 8pm.
Luton’s survival bid continues with a home fixture against Brentford on Saturday April 20. Kick-off 3pm.
