There was spirit, there was fight, there were a lot of screwed-up balls of paper, but ultimately nothing that Elland Road threw at Manchester City could prevent the defending champions from securing a comfortable 4-0 victory which returned them to the top of the Premier League table and left Leeds languishing at the other end, now only one place above the relegation zone.
Leeds were bold and boisterous but always second-best. Jesse Marsch’s side were a test for City initially but let themselves down with slack defending on set-pieces for the first two goals, converted by Rodri and Nathan Aké. Gabriel Jesus and Fernandinho then helped close the gap to Liverpool’s goal difference. City remain one point clear and are now only one goal short of their rivals on the tiebreaker.
There were periods where Pep Guardiola’s side were far from their sparkling best. The first half was combative, a little ugly and threatened to get out of hand at times as referee Paul Tierney struggled to take control. Throughout the 90 minutes, Jack Grealish was playfully pelted with balls of paper left over from a pre-match ‘Yorkshire’ tifo. It was more than a little disruptive and this was more of a battle for City than the final scoreline suggests.
Follow all the reaction from a crunch match at Elland Road below:
