Premier League leaders Manchester City are in otherworldly form in attack after seven wins from their opening eight games of the season.
Kevin de Bruyne is leading their charge.
[ VIDEO: Premier League highlights ]
After their 7-2 win against Stoke City on Saturday, Pep Guardiola’s men have now scored 24 goals in their last five Premier League games. They have scored 29 goals in their opening eight Premier League games of the season overall.
In top-flight history only the Everton side of the 1894-95 season have scored more in their opening eight eight games of a season.
City had six different goalscorers on Saturday and Sergio Aguero was an unused sub. Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan and Yaya Toure were brought off the bench to showcase City’s incredible strength in depth.
And Guardiola, who said it was City’s “best performance” since he took charge last summer, is simply running out of superlatives for de Bruyne.
The Belgian set up two goals and dominated proceedings on his 100th appearance for Man City, as the wizard has taken his game to another level this season.
His second assist for Leroy Sane (see the video above) was simply majestic and since he arrived at City in September 2015 no other player in the Premier League has grabbed more than his 32 assists.
Gabriel Jesus, who scored twice against Stoke to take his tally to seven goals for the season in all competitions, also lauded KDB’s brilliance.
“I’m really happy and pleased to be playing with high-level players like him. We all feel lucky to have him in our team,” Jesus said. “We have been working hard and face every game to win and score lots of goals. We’re really happy with how we are playing.”
Even Stoke City’s official Twitter page had to hold their hands up and acknowledge de Bruyne’s brilliance and the way Man City were playing.
Kevin De Bruyne gets the @ManCity man of the match 👏
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) October 14, 2017
Sometimes, you have to hold your hand up and appreciate the opposition.
(7-2) #SCFC
Yes, Man City’s form is sensational and in their last five Premier League games they’ve racked up 5-0 wins against Liverpool and Crystal Palace, a 6-0 win at Watford and a 1-0 win at Chelsea, but we’ve seen this dazzling attacking action from them before without winning trophies.
Guardiola knows his team has a duty to entertain with the way he has them set up and his philosophy but he wants to do one thing over anything else: win.
“I am here to win, I am not here to entertain,” Guardiola said. “This is the way we want to play, our confidence is high. Everybody believes we are going to win. We create many chances.”
De Bruyne is the man creating most of them.