MAN CITY 2, LEEDS UNITED 1
Manchester City made unnecessarily hard work of their 10th straight Premier League victory against Leeds United after a bizarre late sequence of events at the Etihad.
City, two goals ahead though Ilkay Gundogan’s first-half brace were handed a penalty seven minutes from time which looked to have wrapped up victory.
However, regular spot kick taker Erling Haaland sportingly handed Gundogan the ball for the chance to complete his first hat-trick for City.
The German struck the upright and Leeds broke away to halve the deficit through substitute Rodrigo to ensure a nervy finale before the victory was confirmed which took them four points clear at the top.
City manager Pep Guardiola was unhappy with Haaland’s decision but was furious when Leeds, beaten 7-0 on their visit to the Etihad last season, scored to suddenly put the outcome in doubt.
Suddenly the momentum swung Leeds’ way in the dying embers of the game which ought never to have been the case as they had enjoyed 81 per cent possession and had 18 goal attempts to four from the visitors.
You also felt for Gundogan, who was ignored by Guardiola when substituted in stoppage time as, the penalty miss aside, he had played a blinder.
Apart from his two goals, Gundogan had 192 touches in the game and 170 completed passes, the most by any player in the Premier League for both this season.
Of the penalty incident, Guardiola said: “The game is not over. It shows how nice and generous Erling is. If it is 4-0 with 10 minutes left, okay. But at 2-0? Erling is the best penalty taker right now, so he has to take it.
“Today Erling could have scored two or three goals. He played incredibly well, in his movement and everything, how he fought for us. I like to praise Erling when he does not score.
“If Gundogan scores everyone is okay, hat-trick, well done. But a taker is a taker. At 2-0, this is a business, not a situation where we cannot forget it.”
That aside, Guardiola was happy, saying: “We played an exceptional game. Our possession game was really good. The first half was exceptional. We were maybe not as clinical as we should be.
“The second half, we cannot forget it is three games in six days with a lot of mental pressure. After Arsenal we were drained a bit and we kept going against Fulham and West Ham, tough opponents.
“At the end, the game could be over with the penalty. But they score and we have to suffer. But we played really, really good.
Embed from Getty Images“I would say it was a comfortable game for him (Gundogan) because he was not pressed much. But Gundo… what can I say? He can do everything. As a holding or attacking midfielder, he is so intelligent. We are delighted to have him.”
Guardiola added he made changes to freshen up the team.
“We had three games in six days. After Fulham it was okay, but after Fulham I had a feel players were tired which is why I rotated the team,” he explained.
New Leeds’ manager Sam Allardyce, who lost 5-0 on his last visit with Crystal Palace in 2017, said: “We take some hope out of today on the second-half performance. Not the first, but the second.
“We now need to build on that and try to get a result. I was slightly fearful, but we sorted it out for the second half and told them they were playing with too much fear. They needed to get on the front foot and try to challenge them.
“Apart from a silly penalty… and a great save by Joel (Robles) that gave us a chance to go up the other end and score. When you see Man City running down the clock for four minutes at the end, you know you have given yourself a chance. We did right until the end, but it didn’t quite happen.
“Without a huge amount of knowledge, barring that from the staff that was already here, we knew we would have to make five subs today. It was disappointing that one of our subs [Pascal Struijk] gave the penalty away.
“The rest came on and kept us going. We were putting fresh legs on and adding energy which helped us create a good goal. Karl (Robinson)was saying, when we were making the last two, there was still 15 minutes to go. But I told him we’d take the risk. It was worth it. We came close, but not close enough.”
“We have to get better between now and next week. We have to improve our performance by five per cent. It would be too much to ask more than that in such a short space of time.
“We can iron out a bit more in terms of the playing side and our possession. That is what let us down in the first half. It was too rush and not accurate enough. They weren’t hitting the right spaces. “When we did that a bit better in the second half we got more attacking options and it gave the defenders some respite.”
Haaland started but Guardiola made seven changes from the side that beat West Ham on Wednesday.
Ederson was back in goal, Aymeric Laporte, Rico Lewis and Manuel Akanji joined Nathan Ake in defence, while Kevin De Bruyne was back from injury in midfield with Gundogan and Phil Foden also returning.
Stefan Ortega, Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Jack Grealish, Rodri and Bernardo Silva were the players to lose out.
Allardyce made four changes from the team that lost 4-1 to Bournemouth in Javi Gracia’s final game in charge.
Joel Robles replaced Ilian Meslier in goal, Junior Firpo and Max Wober came into defence and Adam Forshaw returned in midfield with Robin Koch, Liam Cooper and Crysencio Summerville the other players making way.
It took City’s new-look team time to get into their groove and more than 15 minutes to carve out their first chance, and then two came in quick succession as Julian Alvarez blazed over from De Bruyne’s cut back and Haaland’s effort was blocked by Robles.
Allardyce’s game plan of frustrating City was shot to piece when the hosts took the lead in the 19th minute when Riyad Mahrez cut the ball back for Gundogan to slot home a low from the edge of the box, his sixth goal of the season.
Mahrez then saw a chip land on the roof of the net and Haaland blazed wide with a sitter from his usual high standards.
It was not long, though, before City doubled their advantage with a carbon copy of their opener as Mahrez again cut the ball back to Gundogan who slotted home a low shot into the opposite corner to his opener.
Leeds would have halved the deficit but for Ederson’s fine reflex save to keep put a header from Weston McKennie.
Foden was denied by Robles’ block and Alvarez, following up, saw his effort cleared off the line by Wober.
Argentine World Cup winner Alvarez was denied by Robles as it looked like being a long afternoon for Allardyce’s side.
City came agonisingly close to a third in stoppage time when Foden’s effort flashed just past the upright as Guardiola’s side enjoyed 84 per cent possession.
Haaland headed against the crossbar, but had strayed offside, and then headed straight at Robles as City looked to build an unassailable lead at the start of the second period.
They were forced into an early change when Ake limped off with what appeared a thigh strain to be replaced by Walker.
Haaland looked destined not to score as he was put through by Lewis only to be denied by the frame of the goal.
After the second half meandered along with City never under threat, the game exploded to life in the closing stages.
City won a penalty in the 83rd minute when Foden was brought down by substitute Pascal Struijk who had only just made his entrance.
Haaland handed the ball to Gundogan for the chance to complete his hat-trick only for the German to see his strike deflected by Robles on to the foot of the upright to the fury of Guardiola.
That was intensified as what should have been 3-0 suddenly became 2-1 at Leeds halved the deficit after Akanji’s header rebounded back off Rodrigo for the striker to slot home a low shot.
Guardiola took off Alvarez and Rodri and brought on Bernardo Silva and Rodri to help see out the final minutes which they made things unnecessarily difficult for themselves.