They won comfortably enough in the end. Beautifully enough, too. Manchester City almost always win beautifully. Raheem Sterling's second goal in a 3-1 victory was a tap-in after Watford's defence was unlocked by the vision of David Silva. His third in a 13-minute hat-trick was a virtuoso's dance through a packed defence finished off by a delicate dink that deceived Ben Foster.
Yet over all the beauty lay a shadow. City are mired in controversy over allegations about attempts to circumvent Financial Fair Play and other practices that have encouraged an alphabet soup of football authorities to open investigations into them. The last thing they needed was another fierce inquest, this time over something that happened on the pitch - but that is what they got.
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