Gundogan double stretches Man City lead at summit despite anxious finish 

AT THE DOUBLE: Ilkay Guendogan of Manchester City celebrates. Pic: Gareth Copley/Getty Images

Manchester City 2 Leeds United 1 

Manchester City stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points and deepened Leeds relegation fears - but they had to live on their nerves towards the end at the Etihad Stadium.

Ilkay Gundogan's two first-half strikes appeared to have City cruising towards a 10th successive League win but Gundogan spurned the chance of completing his hat-trick by smashing an 83rd-minute penalty against the post.

And moments later sub Rodrigo pulled one back for Leeds to set up an unnecessary anxious few minutes for City.

Pep Guardiola was furious that Erling Haaland sportingly handed over the penalty-taking duties so that Gundogan could try to complete his hat-trick - and the City manager's fury intensified when Leeds pulled one back moments later.

He made seven changes from the team that beat West Ham in midweek but it didn't make any real difference with City dominating from the start until Rodrigo pounced on some scruffy defending to give Sam Allardyce hope of a shock result in his first game in charge.

The only surprise was that Leeds-born Haaland didn't score. The Norwegian must have fancied himself to add to his 51-goal tally against the worst defence in the top flight but he experienced a frustrating afternoon.

He hit the bar with a header and the post with a shot while two other efforts were saved by Joel Robles, given his first start of the season.

Whether Haaland would have scored had he taken the penalty we will never know but Guardiola left him in little doubt about his feelings.

Given the recent form of both teams, it was hardly surprising that Allaryce's first game ended in defeat. He said his first priority on taking over was to tighten up the defence but in the end, will just be happy to have kept the score down to two because City dominated the game from the start.

Allardyce will be disappointed that his players gave Gundogan far too much space to sweep home his goals from the edge of the penalty area - both laid on by Riyad Mahrez. 

But he will be pleased his new charges made a real fight of it right to the final whistle.

Now the pressure is on Arsenal to win at third-placed Newcastle on Sunday to close the gap on City to a point, although they will have played one more game.

Man City (3-2-4-1): Ederson 7; Akanji 7, Laporte 7, Ake 7 (Walker 54, 6); Lewis 7, Gundogan 9 (Rodri 90); Mahrez 8, Alvarez 6, De Bruyne 7, Foden 7; Haaland 6.

Subs: Ortega, Dias, Phillips, Stones, Grealish, Silva, Gomez.

Goals: Gundogan 19, 27.

Leeds (3-4-2-1): Robles 7; Kristensen 5, Wober 5, Firpo 5; Ayling 5; McKennie 5, Forshaw 5 (Struik 80, 4), Roca 5 (Greenwood 58, 5); Harrison 5 (Summerville 65, 5), Gnonto 4 Rodrigo 58, 5); Bamford 5 (Aaronson 80, 4).

Subs: Meslier, Koch, Rutter, Gray.

Goal: Rodrigo 84.

Booked: Gnonto.

Referee: Andrew Madley 7.