Kevin De Bruyne praised his four-goal haul as “special” after Manchester City regained their three-point lead in the Premier League with a 5-1 win over the Wolves – but said he should have scored more.
After watching Liverpool beat Aston Villa 2-1 on Tuesday, City rose to the occasion in Molineux with De Bruyne scoring four goals, the first three coming in the 24th minute to help put Pep Guardiola’s side within four points of the Premier League title.
De Bruyne’s first treble represents the third fastest hat-trick at the start of a Premier League match, after Sadio Mane’s 16-minute match against Aston Villa in May 2015 and Dwight Yorke’s 22-minute match against Arsenal in February 2001.
The Belgian midfielder added a fourth in an hour, becoming the second City player to score a goal in a Premier League away game against Edin Dzeko against Tottenham in August 2011.
De Bruyne, who enjoys City’s top goal-scoring season after scoring 19 goals in all competitions, is pleased with the way he played, but insisted he should have added a fifth when he hit the post late in the afternoon.
“[It] was great! If you score four goals it’s always something special, it should have been five to be honest,” he told Sky Sports.
“I think we played well, maybe without a few counters in the first half, I think we managed the game well.
“We could have scored a lot of points, and to do that against a Wolves team with a strong defense was impressive.
“My right foot is strong, but I’m not afraid to shoot the left. Even if it doesn’t go in, it creates a problem for the opposition.”
Wolves coach Carlos Cachada said the athletes could do nothing to stop De Bruyne, telling Sky Sports: “When it comes to players like these they can score four goals and finish the game, in that game, there is nothing we can do. About it.”
City’s impressive win has extended its run to the Premier League unbeaten to ten (eight wins, two draws), and now they need only four points in their last two games to secure the title.
De Bruyne, however, insists Liverpool can still combine three points with the required seven goals, saying both teams set a “crazy” level.
“We know we currently have a small goal difference, but even seven, with Liverpool that is possible,” he added. “We have to be very focused on Sunday, it will be a tough game for West Ham, so we need to recover and be ready.
“It’s a little crazy, the standards we both set, you can only respect it. We know how hard it is, and both teams have a lot of respect. We play hard, that’s all we can do.”
The Premier League trophy is the only major trophy for City this season after they were knocked out of the Champions League by a 6-5 loss to Real Madrid in all competitions last week.
While De Bruyne, who was replaced before Madrid announced their surprise return to the Santiago Bernabeu, was still disappointed with the loss, he said it was time for City to move on.
“It’s very difficult to explain because it was just five crazy minutes. It’s not that we played anything wrong, it was just five minutes that you can’t describe as a player,” he recalled.
“I don’t know what happened, I was out of control on the bench, so you feel shocked, it’s not good and still the feeling is not good.
“But you have to move on, we are trying to win the title now and whatever happens unfortunately, we have to move on.
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