Premier League: Leicester 0 Manchester City 2 (Savio 21, Haaland 74)
It was not without the kind of faults that have become the norm of late but Pep Guardiola finally rebooted his winning Manchester City machine in his 500th match in charge. “City are back,” came the chants from the away end at the final whistle. Erling Haaland sealed victory, heading in to cap a slick move, kick-started by the substitute James McAtee. City flicked through gears they have struggled to find in recent weeks, shifting the ball from right to left and Haaland, played onside by Conor Coady, powered in unmarked after meeting Savinho’s cross.
Savinho got City up and running, feasting on the rebound of a bouncing Phil Foden shot, parried by the Leicester goalkeeper, Jakub Stolarczyk, but City’s second win in 14 matches, and second clean sheet in as many games, was anything but routine. Still, a year that began with a 32-game unbeaten run en route to a fourth Premier League title ended in familiar fashion.
City led from the 21st minute but there was no comfort blanket until Haaland’s header after 74. Jamie Vardy’s presence proved unsettling, the striker, who turns 38 in a fortnight, returning to the starting line-up to lead Leicester’s attack and kept Nathan Aké on his toes. Vardy punched the visitors’ crossbar and ended tangled in the goal net after lifting a shot over from Stephy Mavididi’s sumptuous cross. Vardy slithered between Aké, who was replaced by Kyle Walker midway through the second half, and Manuel Akanji but could not get his effort on target. Vardy was the catalyst for the move that prompted Akanji to prevent James Justin from surely hooking the ball in minutes earlier.
Ruud van Nistelrooy will be encouraged by plenty. Bilal El Khannouss’s feathery, arcing cross from the right flank soon after the half-hour was the perfect example of quite how close Leicester came to an equaliser on several occasions. El Khannouss’s inviting ball eluded Justin, Vardy, who appeared to intentionally leave it, and Facundo Buonanotte, who was left butting his forehead against the back post in frustration. Buonanotte grew familiar with the woodwork, eight minutes later sending a header against the same post after Josko Gvardiol and Savinho failed to clear the remnants of El Khannouss’s cross from the left.
City offered Leicester encouragement, windows of opportunity. City’s first scare was averted when Vardy, after racing on to Buonanotte’s through ball in the left channel, was flagged offside after being felled in the box by Stefan Ortega, who looked sheepish before looking to his left for confirmation from the assistant referee.
Then Gvardiol undercooked a header back to his goalkeeper, allowing Vardy to nip in and trouble Ortega, who dashed towards his near post to make the save. It was plain City were again without the aura that has been absent for a while now. Kevin De Bruyne, back in the starting line-up in place of Jérémy Doku and Guardiola’s sole change from their draw against Everton, shanked a routine clearance at the front post after an El Khannouss corner.
For City, a welcome buffer would have arrived 10 minutes before half-time had Haaland, after surging past Jannik Vestergaard and sidestepping Boubakary Soumaré, sent his shot the other side of a post after City zoomed forward after Mateo Kovacic pickpocketed El Khannouss on halfway. De Bruyne wellied an early shot over but Haaland had City’s first notable chance, Stolarczyk repelling his first-time shot, from De Bruyne’s cutback, with his left boot.
Stolarczyk, who kept his place in goal after his first top-flight game against Leicester, should have done better but had no chance with City’s second. Haaland, who had a single touch in the opposition box against Aston Villa eight days ago, made Leicester pay.
Guardiola afterward said the return to winning ways will “clear our minds and souls”, and he insisted the Premier League champions will get back to their best.
“I think it is more relief than happiness, I think that’s the right word,” Guardiola said. “As a performance it was not the best, I couldn’t expect it, really. Leicester were better in the last 10-15 minutes of the first half, in the last 15-20 of the second. The game was tight. We have to improve a lot. We will improve as the results improve, that’s for sure. The best of us will come back.”
“Against Everton [on Boxing Day] the performance was far better than today but today we won and that’s what we need to clean our minds and souls and see we can win games,” Guardiola said.
The City manager saluted Haaland who sealed victory late on after recently becoming a dad. “Sometimes Erling has been judged badly but it’s part of football. He’s tired, he’s played a lot of minutes. He’s become a father for the first time in the last few days, a lot of emotions and an exciting few days for him.” – Guardian
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