Manchester City 3-1 Leicester: Hosts edge past Foxes to narrow gap to Arsenal

Manchester City are so good they only need Erling Haaland for 45 minutes. Or so they thought. To be fair, you couldn’t argue with Pep Guardiola’s thinking at half time when he took off his star striker and John Stones. Leicester City were so bad, he could have played with nine and still won comfortably.

As such, it was genuinely mind bending that in the closing 15 minutes of the game, Guardiola was pacing his technical area nervously as Leicester cut through City and threated to produce something near miraculous. An afternoon that looked as if it would be as bad as it possibly could be for new manager Dean Smith, at least gave him some straws at which to clutch.

More significantly, Manchester City are now three points behind Arsenal and play them next week. By then, the quirk of the fixture list and an FA Cup semi-final, means City might have fallen nine points behind the leaders. Guardiola spoke of that game as a ‘final’ and it does look like an epic and decisive showdown to a fascinating season.

Guardiola adopted his whimsical air of destiny mode when contemplating that. ‘It is a final to play more finals because if you lose this game, it will be almost over,’ he mused. Which will certainly feel true. 

And yet there is relentlessness about this City title charge. The inertia is just too great to resist. Twenty seven goals have been scored in their last six games in all competitions. And Leicester were lucky that City had the game won by 25 minutes and switched to auto-pilot.

Erling Haaland scored his 46th and 47th goals of the season against Leicester on Saturday

The forward’s first strike came from the penalty sport after a Wilfried Ndidi handball

John Stones wheeled away after opening the scoring with just five minutes on the clock

Probably only Guardiola’s half-time substitution prevented Haaland from scoring a sixth hat-trick of the season and surpassing Mohamed Salah’s record of 32 goals for 38-game Premier League season. Weep not for Erling, however. 

MATCH FACTS 

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Stones (Akanji 46), Laporte, Silva, Rodri (Phillips 53), De Bruyne (Palmer 62), Mahrez, Haaland (Alvarez 46), Grealish.

Subs not used: Ortega, Ake, Gundogan, Lewis.

Manager: Pep Guardiola. 

Booked: Silva

Goals: Stones, Haaland (2).

Leicester: Iversen, Faes, Souttar, Soyuncu, Castagne, Ndidi (Daka 87), Tielemans (Mendy 62), Kristiansen (Thomas 45), Maddison, Dewsbury-Hall (Praet 62), Vardy (Iheanacho 45).

Subs not used: Ward, Amartey, Tete, Marcal-Madivadua.

Manager: Dean Smith.

Booked: Soyuncu.

Goals: Iheanacho. 

He has another eight games to sneak past Salah and Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole, who scored 34 goals in 42-games seasons. Even Dixie Dean’s 63 in all competitions from 1927-28 is under threat. Unimaginable standards are being set by the Norwegian.

It was to Leicester’s credit that this did not become the game crossed the 9-0 threshold, the Premier League record which, ironically, Leicester share with Liverpool and Manchester United. It certainly looked to be heading that way.

By the end, it was respectable. Kelechi Iheanacho turned in a corner when Ederson and Kalvin Phillips couldn’t clear a powerful Harry Souttar header on 75 minutes and eyebrows were raised. 

When James Maddison broke through on 85 minutes at 3-1, only to be denied by Ederson, you could almost believe the comeback was on.

‘If Maddison had scores, I don’t know what would happen,’ reflected Guardiola. ‘Football is unpredictable.’ 

A penalty shout followed for a potential Sergio Gomez handball. It was turned down by ref Darren England, but all of a sudden it was getting a little twitchy on the City bench. 

On 90 minutes, Iheanacho was played in by Maddison and swept the ball on to the post. What had looked like it would be a rout, suddenly felt like a decent first performance under Smith.

‘Our game plan was to stay in the game,’ said Smith. As such, it was a game plan that did not survive contact with reality. And yet Smith was not wrong when he added: ‘We had problems to solve and I thought we solved some of them. 

‘I saw enough from the players and the changes we made in the second half to see there is a lot of character and my job is to get that out of them. 

‘There are good players in our dressing room and they showed in the last 25 minutes good characters as well. I saw a lethargy last week against Bournemouth but not today.’

New Leicester manager Dean Smith has been left with plenty to consider after the game

Kelechi Iheanacho got one back for Leicester against his old side late on in the match

The problem for City is they were too good too quickly here and thus pretty much gave up at half time. Five minutes in, a game of head tennis from Kevin De Bruyne’s corner saw Rodri get the final touch before the ball bounced invitingly for John Stones on the edge of the box. In the form of his life, it was perhaps no surprise that he connected and struck it into the top corner as though he were De Bruyne himself It was a strike of some beauty.

Five minutes later, with Leicester in a state of disarray, Jack Grealish fizzed down the left, cut inside and his cross bounced off Wilfred Ndidi’s outstretched hand. It took the VAR to get us there, but it was an obvious penalty. The ensuing result was just as clear, Haaland simply powering the ball into the far right-hand corner despite not getting the cleanest contact. Daniel Iversen went the right way but was beaten by the sheer force.

By now Leicester were a shambles. Ndidi was pushed off the ball on 25 minutes by De Bruyne, who freed Haaland, who in turn powered his way through two defenders to dink the ball over Iversen. He can do sheer power and he can do nimble subtlety.

 It was like watching one of those one-sided school matches where you want the referee to blow up early or the opposition manager to take off his best players.

Guardiola did pretty much that, starting the subs at half time, resting Haaland and Stones for Julian Alvarez and Manuel Akanji. He even entrusted Kalvin Phillips, usually restricted to cup games, to 37 minutes of Premier League football, the longest he has played in the league this season. 

Sergio Gomez and Cole Palmer also came on but City lost all sense of rhythm and direction. Guardiola said afterwards he had resisted the urge to rotate the team before the game as experience says it disrupts momentum. As it was, the disruption only came once they were 3-0 up.

The problem for Smith was that the opening half had been so devoid of spirit and tactical coherence that ultimately the second half would count for nothing.

Haaland needs just one more goal to break Mohammed Salah’s record for the most goals in a 38-game Premier League season

Kevin de Bruyne (left) and Jack Grealish (right) were among those to be withdrawn early by City

The back five Smith hoped would contain City only served to present the entire midfield to them. Theoretically, Leicester had four players to City’s three. It’s just that Kiernan Dewsbury Hall seemed lost on the left and James Maddison couldn’t impact the game from the right. 

Youri Tielemans was overrun and Ndidi had the first half of nightmares. Jamie Vardy was taken off at half time, so inconsequential was his contribution. But then he hardly saw the ball, so could he really be blamed? Smith said Vardy was fine with the decision. It would be interesting to know Vardy’s take on that.

It was on a crisp afternoon here just over seven years ago that one of the defining moments of the Leicester miracle took place. In what became known as a signature display, Claudio Ranieri’s team tore Manchester City apart on the counter attack and you suddenly realised that their most improbable title challenge might actually be something more than a pipe dream. 

They still sing songs about that extraordinary triumph but it’s a folk memory now. Leicester look headed for the Championship. Unless that second half really is the start of something special. Another fairy tale, admittedly slightly less magical, might been birthed in that final 45 minutes.

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