AFP) - Manchester City continued its stunning offensive performances, beating Southampton 4-0 in the tenth round of the English Premier League, to lead the standings, awaiting the summit meeting between Arsenal and Liverpool on Sunday, while Tottenham and Chelsea continued their progress in the standings by winning.

City had inflicted a crushing defeat on its neighbor Manchester United 6-3 last Sunday, before adding a clean five-goal against Copenhagen in the Champions League in the middle of the week, raising its score of goals in the local league specifically to 33 goals in 9 matches, an average of 3.6 per match.

Spanish coach Pep Guardiola's team raised its tally in first place to 23 points, compared to 21 for Arsenal.

At Al-Ittihad Stadium, City pressed from the first minutes, and its Algerian international wing, Riyad Mahrez, almost opened the scoring after two minutes had passed, but Southampton Irish goalkeeper Gavin Bazuno flew in with his powerful shot, saving his goal.

Then Manchester City's top scorer, the Norwegian giant Erling Haaland, tried his luck when he was alone with the goalkeeper, and he hit the right post (14).
City opened the scoring when the ball reached Portuguese Joao Cancelo, to penetrate into the area, dodge James Ward-Prowse, and hit a creeping ball that passed between the legs of one of the defenders and continued on its way towards the goal (20).

Phil Foden added the second goal when the ball reached him inside the area from Belgian Kevin De Bruyne, and he curled it with his left over the advanced goalkeeper (32).

With this decisive pass, De Bruyne broke the previous record for the best passer for City in the “Premier League”, raising his tally to 94 assists, after he was equal to the former Spanish playmaker, David Silva.

Southampton responded with a powerful shot from Stuart Armstrong from 20 meters, just over the crossbar (45).

And at the beginning of the second half, the Algerian international, Riyad Mahrez, added the third goal when he received a perfect ball from the Spaniard Rodri, and he hit it on the fly with his left hand, out of the reach of the goalkeeper (49).

Then Haaland added the fourth goal by receiving a cross from Cancelo, and he followed it up with a lightning strike with his left hand into the net (65), raising his tally of goals in the domestic league to 15, reinforcing his lead in the scorers’ ranking, as he was ahead of Tottenham striker Harry Kane, who finished in second place, with seven goals.

With this loss, the fate of the Austrian coach of Southampton, Ralph Heisenhuttl, is in the wind, after his team received its fourth loss in a row, after falling to Wolverhampton and Aston Villa, with the same score, zero-1, and against Everton, 1-2.

Chelsea continued its revival under the supervision of its new coach, Graham Potter, by beating Wolverhampton 3-0 at home.

The London team waited for stoppage time in the first half, when German Kai Havertz opened the scoring with a header, following a cross from Mason Mount.

Then the American Christian Pulisic added the second with a new pass from Mount (54), before Albanian striker Armando Broja finished the scoring a minute before the end of the match.

The London club dropped its guest AC Milan 3-0 in the middle of the week in the Champions League.

Tottenham regained the tone of victories after losing the North London derby to Arsenal 1-3 last week and returned with the three points from Brighton 1-0, noting that the latter snatched an exciting draw from Liverpool in the last home 3-3 last week.

Tottenham had also settled for a goalless draw with Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League in the middle of the week.

And once again, Tottenham's top scorer Harry Kane played the role of savior for his team by scoring the only goal of the match after a pass from Ivory Coast's Eve Bisuma in the 22nd minute.

Newcastle achieved a landslide victory over Brentford 5-1, including a brace for Brazilian international midfielder Bruno Guimarães (21 and 56), Jacob Murphy (28), Paraguayan Miguel Almiron (82) and Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock (90 mistakes in his team's goal added the other three goals, to climb to Fifth place.
Bournemouth came from behind at home to Leicester City to win 2-1.
On Sunday, 4 matches will be played, Crystal Palace will play with Leeds United, West Ham with Fulham, Arsenal with Liverpool and Everton with Manchester United, and will conclude on Monday with Nottingham Forest meeting with Aston Villa.