Manchester City 3-2 Leeds United: Phil Foden nets late winner to spare Cityzens’ blushes against spirited Whites | OneFootball

Manchester City are back to winning ways after a 3-2 triumph over Leeds United in Saturday’s Premier League meeting.

Pep Guardiola’s men were beaten by Newcastle United and then Bayer Leverkusen in their two outings since returning from the international break, while Leeds suffered a late collapse against Aston Villa last time out.

Having won five of their six home league matches so far, Pep Guardiola’s men were huge favourites to get the job done against an opposing side who had been beaten in all but one of their six away league outings.

City needed just one minute to open the scoring as Phil Foden guided home Matheus Nunes’ cross from close range after the Portuguese was played in by compatriot Bernardo Silva.

The hosts continued to pile on the pressure after going ahead and nearly doubled their advantage when Foden saw his goal-bound effort blocked.

Foden’s early strike seemed to whet his appetite, and the England international drew a fine save out of Lucas Perri in the 24th minute.

From the resulting corner, City further stamped their authority on proceedings as Josko Gvardio turned home a rebound after Nico O’Reilly’s header was saved.

Leeds barely posed any attacking threat in the opening half hour of the contest, so Daniel Farke’s side needed a change in fortunes if they were to get themselves back in the contest.

However, City looked the likelier of the two sides to grab the next goal, which would all but put the game to bed heading into its midway point.

Looking for a first league goal since the opening weekend, Tijjani Reijnders came close to scoring on two occasions, while Nico Gonzalez’s effort needed Perri to be at his best as the strike came through bodies.

With almost the last play of the half, O’Reilly fluffed a glorious chance to join in on the act, failing to get any purchase on his header from a Jeremy Doku delivery.

Gianluigi Donnarumma was a spectator for large spells of the first 45 minutes, but his moment of uncertainty from a set-piece situation nearly allowed Leeds back into the contest in early exchanges of the second half.

City would prove to be architects of their own downfall once again, and they were duly punished this time around by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who wasted no time making an impact off the bench.

Scoring so early in the half reinvigorated Leeds, and City now had a game on their hands from a position of absolute comfort.

An already poor second half went from bad to worse for the home side in the 68th minute courtesy of Nmecha’s leveller from the penalty spot after his initial effort was repelled by Donnarumma.

Relinquishing their advantage expectedly spurred City into action as they started to regain some level of control.

Erling Braut Haaland had one of his most quiet outings against his boyhood club, and the Norwegian’s tame header two minutes from time did little to change that.

On as a substitute with City pushing for a winner, Omar Marmoush called Perri into action, but the Leeds keeper was up to the task.

City would have been relieved to see 10 minutes of stoppage time added on, although they only needed one to regain the lead.

Foden had endured a subdued second-half display until he fired his side ahead from inside the area to spark wild celebrations at the Etihad Stadium.

That proved to be the decisive moment of an enthralling affair at the end of which City now sit second in the Premier League table ahead of Chelsea’s heavyweight meeting against Arsenal tomorrow.