Semenyo fires City past Leeds to keep heat on Gunners

Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo celebrates scoring their side's first goal.

Premier League: Leeds 0 Manchester City 1 

IT was a case of no Erling, no problem as Manchester City kept the heat very much on Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.

Then again it always helps when you have a ready-made £65m replacement for injured top scorer Haaland in the form of Antoine Semenyo, who set Pep Guardiola's men on the way to a sixth straight win by making it half a dozen goals since joining from Bournemouth last month.

A ninth game unbeaten cut the Gunners' lead at the summit to two points ahead of Sunday's meeting with Chelsea in the two-horse race to succeed Liverpool as officially the best side in English football.

It wasn't all plain sailing. Leeds had City on the ropes in a torrid first half hour before Daniel Farke's side were floored by a classic sucker-punch to remain six points clear of the bottom three after failing to take one of several chances they created in a dominant opening before eventually running out of steam.

Farke's frustrations boiled over at the final whistle when the usually reserved German was shown a red card by Peter Bankes after storming into the centre circle to remonstrate with the referee as tempers frayed on both sides.

Statistically speaking City's chances of winning improved when Haaland's name failed to appear on the team sheet due to a minor knock picked up in training on Thursday.

Guardiola's side boast a 10 percent better winning ratio without their talisman striker in the side but that initially didn't look the case as the hosts should have been out of sight at the break after harrying the life out of the clearly rattled visitors.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin set the tone for Leeds' sloppy work in front of goal inside the opening five minutes when, just 10 yards out, the unmarked forward steered his left-foot shot wide from an inch-perfect Brenden Aaronson cross out on the right.

VAR might have shown an interest in a push on Marc Guehi in the lead-up had Calvert-Lewin found the net.

There would have been no such reprieve when the Leeds striker latched onto a ball over the top, turned Guehi and beat Gianluigi Donnarumma with a low shot from a narrow angle. The ball trickled across the face of goal but there was no one in a white shirt to take advantage of what would have been a simple tap-in.

Guardiola's side struggled to deal with an incessant early press. Rayan Ait-Nouri was hounded out of possession in the left-back berth by Jayden Bogle, whose inviting low ball to the near post was only prevented from finding the net by Guehi's timely last-ditch intervention to deflect Aaronson's sliding effort wide.

The one-way traffic continued as James Justin was inches from providing a telling touch to a Calvert-Lewin knockdown when City failed to deal with a free-kick into their box.

When Aaronson was put clean through on goal it looked like Leeds had to finally make their pressure tell, but the US midfielder never looked confident of beating Donnarumma from a diminishing angle as he shot straight at the imposing Italian.

It took a fine save from Karl Darlow to keep out a close-range header from Nico O'Reilly in the visitors' first real threat as the interval approached, before City delivered the decisive blow in first-half stoppage-time.

From Rayan Cherki's astute angled pass, Ait-Nouri was given time down the left to fire over a perfect low cross which was met at the far post by a sliding Semenyo who stole in between the two centre-backs to open the scoring from six yards.

Leeds' failure to convert their chances continued in the second half as Calvert-Lewin delayed to allow his shot to be blocked by Matheus Nunes after the forward was found unmarked at the far post by an Anton Stach cross.

It took a fine block by Pascal Struijk to prevent Semenyo doubling the lead inside the final 20 minutes after more good work from the influential Cherki.

Darlow kept out Guehi's header from the subsequent corner as City took the sting out of visibly tiring opponents until a late Leeds rally saw Jaka Bijol come within inches of a dramatic late equaliser with his first touch when the substitute headed inches wide from an Ethan Ampadu long throw.

Leeds (3-5-2): Darlow 7; Justin 7 (Piroe 87, 6), Rodon 7 (Bijol 87, 6), Struijk 6; Bogle 7 (James 76, 6), Stach 6, Ampadu 6, Gruev 6 (Gnonto 75, 6), Gudmundsson 6; Calvert-Lewin 6, Aaronson 7 (Nmecha 65, 6).

Manchester City (4-1-3-2): Donnarumma 7; Nunes 7, Dias 7, Guehi 7, Ait-Nouri 7; Rodri 7; Cherki 8 (Ake 87, 6), Silva 7, O'Reilly 7 (Reijnders 70, 6); Semenyo 8, Marmoush 5 (Savinho 68, 5). Booked: Donnarumma, Ait-Nouri, Savinho.

Referee: Peter Bankes.