Man City

Erling Haaland stayed hot, Jack Grealish finally contributed and Brenden Aaronson was given an impossible task. Here's how Man City beat Leeds.

Haaland on Man City adapting to his style of play rather than the other way around: "It's a fantastic first half-year to work with Pep and work with such amazing players, and not only the coaching staff and the players but the medical staff has been working so good for me to fix my body. The league is so competitive, every moment of every game is so vital, and our ability to concentrate and be disciplined and play the way we want and still have intensity and play with quality in all phases -- man, what a big challenge. (laughs) First of all, the expectation of our fans is this is a high-level Premier League team and they want a winner. [Italy](/soccer/team?id=162) international [Wilfried Gnonto](https://www.espn.com/soccer/player/_/id/297784/Wilfried-Gnonto) was Leeds' biggest threat with his trickery and pace down the left, but without a target man to aim for, Gnonto's work came to nothing. I've been having some small problems but now it's getting much better and it's been a pleasure honestly to work with these guys and improve my game because I'm still young and that's something I want to do -- I want to improve and I want to become better. I'm challenging them to grow and get better, and it's also a big challenge for me as a manager to find ways against the best teams and best coaches in the world, to find ways to be who we want to be." [Arsenal](/soccer/team?id=359) beating West Ham on Monday, it was crucial that City maintained the pressure on Mikel Arteta's Gunners with a win against Jesse Marsch's Leeds. I thought in many moments -- it's Man City, in many ways for me the best team in the world with one of the best coaches in the world, so you can't contain them entirely, but I thought we did a pretty good job." Pascal Struijk pulled one back for the home side in the 73rd minute off a corner kick. [FC Salzburg](/soccer/team?id=2790) forward can't be blamed for his team's lack of cutting edge against the champions. Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch on whether he had hope once Leeds pulled one back: "The thing we know about our team is that we never quit. [Best/worst performers](#bestworst)

Erling Haaland continued his incredible season in front of goal with a brace to help Manchester City cruise to a 3-1 victory at Leeds United on Wednesday, ...

Then that early goal after the break killed us." "We have to hunt Arsenal. "I have a (goal) target but I cannot say it," Haaland told Amazon.

Erling Haaland enjoyed a happy homecoming as he returned to the city of his birth on Wednesday in the Premier League and scored twice in a 3-1 win for ...

The two combined again just after the hour to make it 3-0 and seal the three points. Pascal Struijk did pull one back for Leeds but it was just a consolation as the night belonged to Haaland. City then doubled their lead five minutes after the restart.

Erling Haaland scored his 20th Premier League goal of the season as Manchester City recorded a 3-1 victory over Leeds at Elland Road.

LEEDS 1-3 MAN CITY (PASCAL STRUIJK): Struijk may have just dragged Leeds back into this contest with his second goal of the season! LEEDS 0-2 MAN CITY (ERLING HAALAND): Grealish is alert to steal in and intercept a loose pass from Cooper in the Leeds defence. Grealish crosses and Haaland is at the near post to tuck a first-time shot past Meslier. LEEDS 0-1 MAN CITY (RODRI): City finally have the breakthrough! Lewis rolls a pass across the face of goal but from point blank range Grealish lifts it over the bar! Yes, he is getting into those dangerous positions but for a £100m player you would expect him to have the composure and knack to make the most of such opportunities.

In the 3-1 victory over Leeds last night, he used a three-man defence stretched across the width of the pitch, a central midfielder in Rodri who often dropped ...

But on this evidence, he symbolises Guardiola’s novel approach we’ve come to take for granted, and might soon be considered a new breed of player entirely. Lewis isn’t in a natural position to cope with an opposition left-winger, but because Leeds were playing so narrow, Lewis’ job was fairly simple — just tracking But they controlled possession well, dragged Leeds around, exploited space out wide and guarded against counter-attacks. The particularly bold thing here, of course, is leaving Lewis entirely on his own in midfield. And some of the shapes City took up in possession were extraordinary. Rodri, the holding midfielder, is briefly the most obvious defender, while left-back Ake is tucked in alongside the central midfielder, Gundogan. Leeds were sloppy at turnovers and didn’t exploit any space between City’s defenders. Stones pushed out to right-back and Lewis drifted inside — you can see him near the centre spot in the screengrab below. Stones, who spent most of the game near the right touchline, is over towards the left corner flag. But that was City’s shape without the ball, which isn’t particularly relevant when they had 69 per cent of possession. The key thing, of course, is that it all worked perfectly. Leeds played an extremely narrow 4-3-3, attempting to dominate the centre of the pitch and prevent City from passing through the middle.

To commemorate 30 years of the Premier League, we today continue our new video series celebrating 30 key City moments during that historic timeline.

[De Bruyne](https://www.mancity.com/players/kevin-de-bruyne) sealed the points with eight minutes to play, jinking inside before wrong-footing goalkeeper Dean Henderson with a low finish. [FIND OUT MORE ABOUT RECAST](https://recast.tv/ManCity) [FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CITY +](https://www.mancity.com/city-plus)