Guardiola told Grealish 'he has to win games'
Manchester City's Jack Grealish scores their side's second goal of the game during the Premier League match against Luton. Pic James Warwick
First Arsenal and now Manchester City; the Premier League title contenders have had to work hard to get the better of Luton Town this week.
And now Pep Guardiola's tottering treble-winners - in fourth four points adrift of new front-runners Liverpool - must do without Erling Haaland for an unspecified time because of a foot injury. "It's not a fracture, just a stress on the bone," the City manager was quick to clarify.
City's Christmas won't be like anyone else's anyway - they disappear to Saudi Arabia for Club World Cup duty after hosting Crystal Palace on Saturday - but Pep's absentee list already contains Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku.
City avoided racking up five games without a victory by coming from behind. Elijah Adebayo's headed opener in first-half stoppage time gave the Hatters hope of an almighty upset to follow their 4-3 defeat at home to Arsenal in midweek, a clash that was decided right at the death.
Rob Edwards' side could not take this one quite as deep however as second-half replies from Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish turned out to be just enough.
Afterwards Guardiola gave a flavour of the words he had directed at half-time to his under-achieving superstars.
"I said to them 'what do we have to do, feel sorry for ourselves?'" he said. "We don't have to - it's happened. So what do we do? Complain again that we are unlucky?
"No - strikers, be more aggressive and score goals, defend better the cross and be positive, we have to demand more of ourselves. The big characters, the big teams - like this team is - are defined in these situations. Then we will find who we really are."
And so it proved. Grealish has been kept out of the starting line-up for most of this season by Doku but eventually turned out to be the match-winner.
After the final whistle Guardiola had words with the man who once belonged to the Republic of Ireland. "I said he has to win games - he has to. We talked about that."
City began strongly and kept Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski busy. Phil Foden was first to test him, then Rodri, then Foden again.
Kaminski - the busiest Premier League goalkeeper even before this - dived bravely at Foden's feet before Ederson made his first save, an Andros Townsend effort from range that was straight at him.
And then, out of nothing, Luton took the lead. Ross Barkley got the better of Rodri in midfield to begin a move that saw Townsend swing the ball to the back post. It was the moment Adebayo had been waiting for; the big striker easily outjumped Ruben Dias to power home a header, just as he had against Arsenal.
Guardiola's words stung City into second-half action, with Kaminski soon tipping a Dias drive on to the bar, and in the 61st minute the Belgian was finally beaten. Rodri burst into the box before being stopped by a Tom Lockyer challenge that might have resulted in a penalty had referee Tim Robinson not allowed play to continue. Bernardo swept into the far corner.
Goal number two followed three minutes after as Luton negligently stopped to claim handball against Julian Alvarez. The Argentina forward, unconvincing overall as Haaland's understudy, was allowed to carry on and send a low ball across the box that Teden Mengi could not cut out. Grealish, arriving at the back post, slotted under Kaminski and City were ahead.
The Hatters showed the same resilience as they had against Arsenal, with Ross Barkley crashing a drive just wide but Jacob Brown was fortunate VAR did not recommend a red card for a two-footed tackle on Foden.
Luton threw everything at City in the last few minutes but the champions held out. "A lot of people like to talk about City and go on like it's a big crisis, in reality we've played very good teams," was Grealish's verdict.
The Hatters, now four points adrift of safety, play Bournemouth and then Newcastle next, with a trip to Sheffield United on Boxing Day as close to a must-win as you can get.
Edwards' side make up for a lack of top-drawer quality with an excess of energy and received unwavering backing throughout from some of Bedfordshire's loudest, with one elderly supporter taking time out to give Grealish a bespoke torrent of touchline abuse. But Town will go down if they can't turn a replication of this week's performances into wins against other, more beatable, opponents.
Edwards agreed. "We can take a lot of confidence and belief," he said. "In many aspects we were excellent. Maybe we're changing the narrative about Luton Town a little bit - but we do need to get points."
Kaminski 8; Doughty 7, Mengi 7, Lockyer 7 (Clark 90, 2), Bell 7, Giles 7 (Ching 84, 3); Nakamba 7 (Lokonga 72, 4), Barkley 7; Townsend 7 (Morris 72, 6), Adebayo 8, Brown 7.
Ederson 7; Walker 6, Dias 6, Ake 7, Gvardiol 6 (Stones 69, 6); Rodri 7, Kovacic 7 (Nunes 83, 3); Silva 7, Foden 7 (Akanji 90, 2), Grealish 7; Alvarez 6.
: Tim Robinson 7
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