After dispiriting losses to Newcastle and Leverkusen, Man City wasted absolutely no time in their attempts to nail down a sixth successive Premier League (PL) home victory, with less than a minute on the clock when Matheus Nunes crossed in the box for Phil Foden to control and fire a precision strike into the roof of the Leeds net.
Even for a side that had beaten only bottom club Wolves on the road this term, it represented a nightmare start, and with City then dominating possession in the minutes immediately after, it seemed a mere question of ‘how many’ and ‘when’.
The answer to the latter was the 25th minute, as Joško Gvardiol netted on the rebound when Leeds failed to clear a Foden corner, with his first strike of 2025/26 having to survive a VAR review.
As for ‘how many’, City fans with longer memories were perhaps making comparisons with the momentum they had nearly four years ago, when thrashing the Whites 7-0 here after a match opener from Foden.
On that occasion, they’d gone into the break 3-0 up, but Leeds at least managed to avoid such a fate this time around, preventing any further scares up to HT.
Leeds coach Daniel Farke had previously been criticised for a lack of proactivity with substitutes, but after switching Daniel James for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, he answered his critics with aplomb. From almost nowhere, Leeds were back in it just four minutes after the restart, with the former Evertonian firing low inside the left-hand post after getting a rebound.
Leeds were duly in the ascendancy over the next few minutes, though with City scoring between the 55th and 70th minute in each of their previous five home league games, there was always a sense that Pep Guardiola’s men could still shift up a gear.
They would soon rue not adding to that tally, as Calvert-Lewin then won a penalty at the three-quarter mark, after being taken down by Gvardiol inside the box.
Lukas Nmecha stepped up to try and stun his former club, and though he saw his initial effort saved, there was nothing Gianluigi Donnarumma could do as he fired in at the second attempt to level the scores.
And with parity restored, Leeds could now do what appeared unthinkable at the break, and end City’s unbeaten run of 25 league matches against newly-promoted sides.
With Leeds themselves accounting for City’s previous defeat to a newcomer way back in April 2021, there was a certain sense of duty to repeat the feat in front of a present crowd.
That said, Leeds’ primary objective was still to merely see the game out for a point, but they failed in the first minute of added time, as Foden fired in from the edge of the box via Rayan Cherki’s pass.
It was a true ‘get out of jail’ moment, though City could still enter December seven points adrift of leaders Arsenal, while Leeds could be three from safety come the final month of 2025.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Phil Foden (Manchester City)