Manchester City shrugged off the absence of Erling Haaland to close to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a 1-0 win at Leeds on Saturday, while Liverpool beat West Ham 5-2 to climb into fifth.
Haaland was absent for the trip to the city of his birth due to a minor injury that Pep Guardiola described as “not a big problem”.
Without the Norwegian, City were far from their best but ground out a vital three points against a Leeds side that had lost just twice in their previous 16 games.
Leeds were left to rue not making the most of their early dominance as Dominic Calvert-Lewin skewed wide a glorious chance just three minutes in.
Antoine Semenyo instead proved to be the match-winner with his sixth goal in 11 games since joining City last month.
“It was a huge victory to still be there (in the race),” said Guardiola, whose side and Arsenal are still involved in four competitions.
“One game at a time. Recover now and start the real season when there are many, many games and everyone’s tired.”
Tempers flared at full-time as Leeds boss Daniel Farke was shown a red card for confronting referee Peter Bankes, while Guardiola was also furious at the officials.
The pressure is now on Arsenal to respond when they host Chelsea in the pick of Sunday’s action.
Liverpool’s set-piece turnaround
Liverpool’s new-found strength from set-pieces masked another unconvincing performance against struggling West Ham.
All three first-half goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister came from corners, putting Arne Slot’s men in a commanding position.
Liverpool have gone from the worst Premier League performers in terms of set-pieces at the end of 2025 to the best since January 1.
“In my opinion we have played better when we lost,” said Slot. “We start scoring from set-pieces and things start looking brighter and better than when you don’t.”
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