Foden rescues Man City with late winner

AP:

ERLING HAALAND has finally stopped scoring. Luckily for Manchester City, Phil Foden stepped up with two goals – one very early and the other very late – to rescue a win in the Premier League yesterday.

A wild 3-2 victory over Leeds was sealed by Foden’s curling shot from the edge of the area in the first minute of stoppage time, allowing City to jump to second place and trim the gap to Arsenal to four points.

The England playmaker earlier scored after just 59 seconds – for what briefly was the fastest goal in the league this season – before Josko Gvardiol added a second for City in the 25th.

Leeds, who are languishing in the relegation zone, replied in the second half through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha – a striker who came through City’s academy – as City showed frailties exposed in defeats over the past week to Newcastle in the league and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

Foden saved City with his late intervention, answering the call of manager Pep Guardiola for others to share the scoring burden that has fallen almost entirely on Haaland this season.

The Norway striker has failed to score in three straight games for City – having netted in 17 of his previous 18 matches for club and country in what was the hottest streak of his career – and remains on 99 goals in the Premier League.

Reaching the 100-goal milestone against Leeds, where he was born in 2000, would have been poignant but the wait goes on.

“He’ll do it next game,” said Guardiola, who had an animated discussion with Haaland on the field after the final whistle.

Leeds manager Daniel Farke accused City of gamesmanship by conducting a team talk with Guardiola while City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma was receiving attention for an injury during the visitor’s dominant period in the second half.

“If you just try to bend the rules to your advantage and you can do a fake injury in order to do an additional team talk, it is nothing I personally like,” Farke said, “but if it is within the rules, I can’t complain about it.”

Arsenal can restore its seven-point cushion over City by winning today at Chelsea, who have dropped to third.

Yesterday’s Results

Brentford 3-1 Burnley

Sunderland 3-2 Bournemouth

Man City 3-2 Leeds

Everton 1-4 Newcastle

Tottenham 1-2 Fulham