28th February 2026. English Premier League.
The key thing today was for Leeds to put on another
strong performance and boost everyone’s confidence that, come Tuesday night
against Sunderland, we can put another three points on the board. The result
today mattered less than the performance. So, in that respect, it was largely
mission accomplished this evening. There was nothing in our performance today
that suggested we can’t now go on and win the points we need to survive. Well,
maybe there was one aspect that wasn’t great. We have started to miss chances
again, as we did early in the season.
Leeds flew out of the traps today and hit City with everything we had for half an hour, and ought to have scored at least once. As early as the 4th minute, Dominic Calvert-Lewin was presented with a golden opportunity to add to his tally of ten goals this season when Brenden Aaronson clipped a perfect ball across to him, and he seemed all set to give Leeds the perfect start, but he stabbed the ball wide. I mentioned last week how I thought DCL had gone off the boil somewhat in recent games, now looking like the DCL we saw back in August, when nothing would go right for him, and many of us questioned his worth. The same has to be said for Brenden too – he had that little spell when he was full of composure in front of goal, but now it’s gone again. Twice in the first half today, he had chances that I’m convinced he’d have buried had he been in that form we saw around Christmas. Brenden poked one shot wide from close range and then, having darted away from the halfway line onto a Stach through ball, he found himself one-on-one with Donnarumma. A heavy touch as he closed in for the kill put paid to that one. DCL had another decent first-half chance too when he twisted and turned in the area only to slide the ball across the face of the goal and past the post, and he’d have another in the second half when he just looked slow to react and was closed down before getting a strike away. Like most strikers, DCL needs the confidence of scoring goals to score even more and just at the minute it’s not happening for him.
So, plenty of chances went begging early on, but we then saw how the best teams can suddenly punish you if you are too charitable. It was irksome again that Leeds slipped up just when the halftime whistle was due – time and time again this season, we have conceded in added time either before the break or at the end of the game. So, it was again today. Okay, it was from some sharp City passing and movement, but Stach switched off and let Aït-Nouri get away from him, and then too many Leeds defenders looked slow off the mark as Semenyo dashed in to slide the ball home. Maybe I’m too critical, maybe not. No one picked up the run through the middle by Nico O’Reilly minutes earlier, and only a fine save from the in-form Karl Darlow spared our blushes that time. In general, though, we dealt with City better than most teams have managed this term. It’s fine margins in the Premier league and we were the wrong side of them today.
Inevitably, after a halftime Pep talk, City came out better prepared for the second half, and Leeds had fewer opportunities, while City took game management to an extreme with their constant time-wasting and regularly conning a very ‘connable’ referee, Peter Bankes. Darlow was again at his brilliant best to tip away a Mark Guehi header while Jaka Bijol almost got us the point we probably deserved with a late header that dropped wide of the post. It was just not to be today.
With West Ham getting walloped at Liverpool, Burnley losing at home to Brentford, and with both Spurs and Forest facing difficult games tomorrow, it looks like no great damage was done by this defeat to City. As mentioned above, the performance today was all-important and was just as strong as we’ve seen from Leeds over these last three months. If we can continue to play as well for the final ten games, we should be fine, but we do need to find that composure in front of goal again, and we need to start on Tuesday night.
Premier League
Leeds United 0
Manchester City 1 (Semenyo 45+2’)
Leeds: Darlow (GK), Bogle (James 76’), Gudmundsson, Ampadu (C), Struijk, Rodon (Bijol 87’), Calvert-Lewin, Aaronson (Nmecha 65’), Stach, Justin (Piroe 87’), Gruev (Gnonto 75’). Subs not used: Perri (GK), Longstaff, Tanaka, Bornauw.
Man City: Donnarumma (GK), Dias, Marmoush (Savinho 68’), Cherki (Aké 88’), Guéhi, Rodri, Silva (C), Aït-Nouri, Nunes, O’Reilly (Reijnders 70’), Semenyo. Subs not used: Trafford (GK), Stones, Doku, González, Khusanov, Foden.
Venue: Elland Road
Attendance: 36,838
Referee: Peter Bankes
Booked: Donnarumma, Aït-Nouri, Savinho (City)
