Manchester City only needs five more wins to claim their third Premier League title in four seasons following their 3-0 victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday evening.
Pep Guardiola has made seven changes to the side that beat Southampton 5-2 on Wednesday, with captain Sergio Aguero, Joao Cancelo, Benjamin Mendy, John Stones, Rodrigo, Ferran Torres and Gabriel Jesus were all given starting berth.
The first real chance of the game fell to Torres, but the Spaniard could not beat the advancing Areola, who makes an excellent block with his leg to deny the winger.
Torres had a chance to redeem himself in the 26th minute but the attacker blazed his shot off target from the edge of the box.
Areola was called into action in the 34th minute when he made a low save to deny Bernardo Silva’s strike at the near post.
Aguero should’ve handed City the lead on the stroke of half time after he was laid off by Torres, but the Man City striker low strike was easily saved by Areola as the game went into the half time break locked at 0-0.
Man City came out guns blazing in the second half and took the lead after a minute through John Stones, who side-footed the ball home from a Silva free kick.
Gabriel Jesus then doubled Man City’s in the 56th minute when an awful mix-up at the back between Cavaleiro and Andersen allowed Gabriel Jesus a clear run on goal and faced with just the onrushing Areola to beat, but the Brazilian kept his cool to jink the ball past the ‘keeper before firing home into the empty net for his 12th goal of the season.
Man City were then awarded a penalty on the half hour mark when Tosin brought down Torres in the box. Aguero stepped up to side-foot the ball into the bottom left-hand corner of the net, despite Areola diving the right way.
Full came close to grabbing a consolation goal with six minutes left to play as Robinson and Mitrovic combine before threading a pass to Lookman but Laporte got across to make a brilliant saving block.
Man City managed to hold on to their three goal lead until the final whistle to snatch all three points away from home.