Leeds battled hard and never gave the game up as a lost cause, but it was always likely that the extra class of Manchester City was going to be too much for us.

With Tyler Adams suspended, Adam Forshaw enjoyed a rare start, while the injury Summerville picked up during our mid-season friendly ensured he would get no further than the bench. So despite the number of wingers we have in the squad we were unable to field any who are specialists in that role, with Aaronson and Gnonto playing in the wide positions.

But of course much of the pre-match discussion centred around Erling Haaland’s return to the city of his birth, and his dad was back at Elland Road to see him in action. Phil Hay has revealed that we made an offer for him when he was still a teenager, and it’s annoying that we didn’t get him. He wouldn’t be with us now, but we’d have banked a few million by selling him on.

And the Norwegian should have marked his return with a goal inside the first couple of minutes, after being put clean through on goal. Meslier was off his line very quickly and just managed to get a hand to the ball as Haaland tried to chip it over the top of him, before Struijk raced back to ensure the ball didn’t cross the line.

City continued to dominate possession with De Bruyne and Gundogan going close, and it started to look like a matter of time before they would take the lead, as Meslier was forced to make another fine save from Haaland. We were forced to drop deep and struggled to make much of an impact at the other end, with only a few impressive runs from Gnonto to show for our efforts.

At this time of year you need a pantomime villain, and inevitably it was Grealish who stepped up to fill that role, going to ground at every opportunity to the inevitable chorus of boos from the stands. And his finishing was just as comical, putting three shots well over the bar from good positions. But just as we thought we could congratulate ourselves for at least getting to the break with the scores still level, City took the lead with just about the final kick of the half.

De Bruyne raced down the left before squaring to Rodri, who slipped the ball to the unchallenged Mahrez on the right. Meslier produced another fine save, but Rodri was quickest to the rebound and Meslier couldn’t quite react in time to get a hand to the second shot. All rather soul-destroying after all our hard work of the first period.

At that stage you could say that we’d done as well as could be expected, but then we gifted them a second goal in the 53rd minute, thanks to a mix-up between our two centre-backs. Cooper has been getting most of the flack on social media for under-hitting a pass across to Koch, but the German was equally culpable for failing to sense the danger as Grealish closed him down.

Grealish took the ball off him and raced downfield, before unselfishly passing to Haaland, and the Norweigian completed the simple task of rolling the ball into the net before Koch could catch up with him. But fair play to Haaland for not celebrating the goal against the club he supports. And fair play to the Leeds fans in the stands, as we continued to roar the team on despite the latest setback.

Inevitably we had to try a more positive approach to get back into the game, with Aaronson shooting wide, and Gnonto producing our first shot on target after another fine run. A foul on Gnonto gave us a free kick in a good position, but Greenwood couldn’t beat the wall and within a minute City had broken downfield and scored the third goal.

De Bruyne cut inside from the right and picked out Haaland with an excellent through ball. The Norweigian created space by playing a one-two with Grealish, before side-footing the ball home to put the game apparently beyond all doubt. Jesse Marsch responded by making the first of his changes, with Klich coming on for the tiring Forshaw.

Klich wasted no time in getting into the spirit of the evening by kicking Grealish on his unguarded shins, with Gnonto also getting a booking after joining the ensuing mele. The next changes saw Llorente replacing Cooper (one clown for another, if social media is to be believed) and Gelhardt coming on for Rodrigo. The Spaniard had struggled to get into the game, and Gelhardt’s contribution would be far more lively.

And on 73 minutes we at least got a foothold in the game. Edison had to push an inswinging free-kick from Roca over the bar, and from the resulting corner Greenwood swung the ball into the area and Struijk got above the to beat Edison with a powerful header, even though the keeper managed to get a hand to the ball.

With Leeds continuing to press forward City were close to restoring a three-goal advantage on the break, but once again Meslier was quickly off his line to make a save from Haaland. And we were close to another goal of our own, which would have made the closing stages very interesting. Aaronson went down the left and slipped it inside to Greenwood, but when Gelhardt stretched to make contact with the ball across the area, he could only send it a few inches past the post.

With seven minutes remaining Gyabi came on for Aaronson to make his Premier League debut, but couldn’t inspire Leeds to make any further impact on City’s goal, and the visitors were able to complete the win they needed to keep in touch with Arsenal at the top of the table. In truth we didn’t expect much more from tonight’s game, given the quality of the opposition.

Some have pointed out that we beat both Chelsea and Liverpool, but both of those clubs are having an iffy season, and apart from slipping up against Brentford in the previous game, City have been far more consistent than that. After another difficult game on new year’s eve we have four fixtures where we should be picking up points, and if we can maintain the intensity we showed in this game, we should get the results we need.

Reuters

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