City prove they can win without Haaland to put pressure back on Arsenal

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the Premier League match between Leeds United and Manchester City at Elland Road. City start the game in rude health, with four wins and a draw from their last five games in this competition, 13 points secured with the new signing Marc Guéhi in the team and a win today, which would make it three in a row for them in LS11 for the first time since 1928, would put them only two points behind Arsenal at the top after 28 games each. A first home victory for Leeds in five meetings, stretching back to 2004 the year when they fell out of the top flight and endured 16 years of trauma, would put them on 34 points, the same as Brighton, but they would remain in 15th.

Leeds’ transformation since walking into the away dressing room at the Etihad in November 2-0 down, changed ‘base formation’ as Daniel Farke always calls it, scored twice yet ultimately lost by virtue of Phil Foden’s exceptional skill and tenacity, has become a well-worn story. In the 14 matches since that defeat they have taken 20 points with four wins and eight draws but they have not played with an orthodox 3-5-2, the home victory over Chelsea apart, for all that many minutes, evolving styles and shapes as the game demands, innovation particularly on the right side of their defence with the right centre-back often galloping up the wing and the right wing-back drifting from inside-right to No 10 and even inside-left, whence Bogle scored against Nottingham Forest.

City’s system remains as fluid as ever and, with the addition of one of the best three goalkeepers in the world, England’s centre-half and the sprightly and spite-like Antoine Semenyo charging left, right and centre, to their cadre of world-class players, they will be as formidable as ever. Leeds fans will cling to that second half performance four months ago and to the imperishable memories of Stuart Dallas and a Marcelo Bielsa-orchestrated 10-man away victory over an even better City side in 2021, but they will need their team to show more belief and attacking gusto than they did against Arsenal a couple of weeks ago when they soiled the bed against a side they seem unable to match anymore. 

Time, though, is on their side. Of the 11 Leeds televised Premier League games this season that have kicked off after 4.30pm, they have won five, drawn six and lost only one, all five wins and two of the draws at home.

Noah Okafor alone is on Leeds’ casualty list while City’s Josko Gvardiol and Mateo Kovacic are at home still nursing long-term injuries.