LONDON: The weight of pressure in the Premier League title race is beginning to tell as Manchester City start to close in on Arsenal.
Ahead of City’s visit to north London on Wednesday so Gunners’ boss Mikel Arteta was complaining about referees changing the rules after a controversial VAR ruling denied his leaders an important victory against Brentford in a 1-1 draw.
Subsequently Arsenal’s pursuers continued to narrow the gaps.
First on Sunday Manchester United moved within five points of Arsenal after late goals from Marcus Rashford and substitute Alejandro Garnacho earned a 2-0 victory away to Leeds.
United were better in the first half, when Bruno Fernandes missed two chances, then Leeds were superior after halftime. The United defence, in which Harry Maguire struggled, was fortunate to survive pressure exerted by Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford and Wilfried Gnonto. But United escaped to victory after Garnacho replaced Jadon Sancho.
Maguire said: “We know Elland Road is always a tough place and there will be times where they have a bit of momentum and it came early in both halves. We had to dig in but we knew our quality would come through if we kept battling and fighting for every ball.
“We were disappointed not to beat them at our place on Wednesday [NB: a 2:2 draw] so we knew today was about revenge and we got it.”
Half an hour later City kicked off against Aston Villa with their fans and players fired up in response to events off the pitch in midweek when the club were charged with more than 100 breaches of Premier League financial regulations since 2009.
Manager Pep Guardiola had made a passionate defence of the club and his players in his eve-of-match press conference. Two weeks ago he had criticised the fans for the absence of vocal support and they responded in noisy style, chanting: “Glad all over, we’ve got Guardiola.”
There was a brief pause in the noise for a minute’s applause in tribute to City’s honorary president Tudor Thomas, who had died aged 94. Then the fans swept the team forward and into a fourth-minute lead as Rodri headed home a corner from Riyad Mahrez.
City continued to dominate and struck again seven minutes before halftime. Top scorer Erling Haaland turned creator by bursting beyond the Villa defence and crossing for Ilkay Gundogan to score his third league goal of the season and first since the 3-3 draw with Newcastle last August.
City wrapped up all three points with a Mahrez penalty just before halftime after old Villa favourite Jack Grealish had been tripped. Villa’s Argentinian goalkeeper Emi Martinez was unable to reproduce any of his World Cup heroics.
Haaland had not taken the penalty because of a minor thigh injury incurred in an earlier collision with Martinez. Julian Alvarez, City’s own World Cup winner, came on at halftime so the Norwegian could make an immediate start on treatment to be fit for Wednesday.
Sure of victory, City grew sloppy. Ollie Watkins scored to celebrate his 100th appearance for Villa, Philippe Coutinho drew a fingertip save from Ederson and substitute Jhon Duran hit the bar.
City survived that late flourish to head for north London with their fire rekindled by a ‘siege mentality’ attitude sparked by the rules breaches row. They will also be inspired by the knowledge that victory will take them top of the table on goal difference, albeit having played one game more.
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