Leeds put up quite a fight and looked impressive in stages, but Manchester City had too much for them and the title battle is still very much on.
The chase continues then. A win for Manchester City puts them back to five points behind Arsenal in the Premier League, back above Newcastle United into second place. There were stages at Elland Road when they didn’t quite look on top of things, particularly during a profligate first half. But despite a dogged performance from Leeds, who never quite gave up no matter how lost their cause felt at times, they won reasonably comfortably, with that guy bagging another couple of goals.
Manchester City went into the World Cup break with a glitch in the matrix still fresh in their minds. Their last match against Brentford was supposed to be a home banker, but two Ivan Toney goals caused one of the upsets of the season, all the more so because Brentford were full participants. A smash and grab it was not. Coming just four weeks after another defeat at Liverpool, the Death Star had been showing signs of wear and tear in the weeks before everyone headed to Qatar.
Leeds United have had a strange old season. After having only avoided relegation on the final day of last season, they started this time around with a flourish, taking seven points from their first three games and briefly occupying third place in the Premier League table. An eight-match run without a win followed, culminating in a 3-2 home defeat against Fulham at which the atmosphere at Elland Road made the sacking of Jesse Marsch feel inevitable.
But Leeds kept faith in Marsch and from out of nowhere came a revival: a 2-1 win at Anfield and a thrilling comeback from 3-1 down to beat Bournemouth. Even in defeat at Spurs in their last match before the winter break they led three times before being edged out by two goals in three minutes towards the end.
Leeds were up to 15th in the Premier League by the time they took to the pitch to play Manchester City, although such is the nature of that very congested half of the table that they were also just three points off the bottom.
For 45 minutes, Leeds were in the game. For the first 15 of those they looked a little tactically messy – on more than one occasion they found themselves with three or four players on the touchline at the same time – but once they settled into compact lines of three they played their part.
Manchester City created all the chances, of course. It took just under 40 seconds for…
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