City moves four points clear of Arsenal

MANCHESTER: Manchester City moved four points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League on Saturday, beating Leeds United 2-1 with a pair of near-identical goals from Ilkay Gundogan and stretching its winning run in the league to 10 matches.

City’s prolific striker Erling Haaland graciously handed the ball to Gundogan to take a penalty-kick in the 84th minute for completing a hat trick, but Leeds goalkeeper Joel Robles had no trouble turning aside the German’s shot.

The home team had run circles around Leeds with numerous excellent scoring chances before Gundogan struck in the 19th minute from the edge of the box off a pass from Riyad Mahrez. Mahrez teed up Gundogan again eight minutes later in a carbon copy of his first goal. Rodrigo Moreno pulled one back for Leeds in the 85th minute.

With four matches left, Pep Guardiola’s side has 82 points as against Arsenal’s 78, and if the ‘Gunners’ loses to Newcastle United on Sunday, City will have all but locked up an illustrious third consecutive title. Leeds, playing its first match under interim manager Sam Allardyce, is teetering in 17th place.

Despite numerous scoring chances, and with the Etihad Stadium crowd cheering him on, Haaland was unable to extend the Premier League single-season record of 35 goals. The 22-year-old Norwegian, who is running roughshod over the record books in his debut Premier League season, could have had at least a couple of goals on Saturday, clanging one shot off the crossbar, another off the post, and narrowly missing a couple of others that left him shaking his head in frustration.

Treble-chasing City, which will play Real Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, is unbeaten in 20 matches through all competitions.

RESULTS: Manchester City 2 (I Gundogan 19 & 27) bt Leeds United 1 (Rodrigo 85); Bournemouth 1 (M Vina 21) lost to Chelsea 3 (C Gallagher 9, B Badiashile 82, J Felix 86); Tottenham Hotspur 1 (H Kane 45) bt Crystal Palace 0