February 28, (THEWILL) — Antoine Semenyo’s first-half strike gave Manchester City a 1-0 victory at Elland Road, trimming Arsenal’s advantage at the top of the English Premier League to two points.
Leeds United produced a commanding opening 45 minutes, pressing Pep Guardiola’s side with real intensity and fashioning several clear openings. Dominic Calvert-Lewin squandered the most glaring opportunity in the third minute, side-footing wide from a precise Brenden Aaronson delivery. The striker then poked wide under pressure from Marc Guehi before losing his composure entirely in a one-on-one situation against Gianluigi Donnarumma. Leeds paid for that wastefulness in first-half stoppage time.
Rayan Cherki threaded a defence-splitting pass into the stride of Rayan Ait-Nouri, whose low centre was turned home on the slide by Semenyo. It was a moment of clinical quality that punished everything Leeds had failed to take.
City retained the ball with authority throughout the second period without regularly threatening to double their advantage. Karl Darlow produced a fine stop to claw a Guehi header off the line, keeping Leeds within reach of a point they had done little to deserve after the interval.
Jaka Bijol went close to forcing a late share of the spoils, but his header drifted wide. The evening ended sourly for the hosts when manager, Daniel Farke, received a red card at the final whistle for foul and abusive language.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.