The scoreline fails to mention that, for 54 minutes of an intensely charged early evening, Manchester City did not look especially comfortable. It does, however, say plenty about the nature of this season’s title race. Neither of the contenders show the remotest sign of blinking: the stare-off simply grows steelier by the week and this became yet another occasion when a spirited opponent was brushed away despite doing little wrong. Leeds are, like the rest of the league, simply not on the same planet and a raucous environment was ultimately no leveller. Pep Guardiola could pick his side with the Champions League in mind and still see them depart giving the impression they will not drop another point in their final four games.
If that happens City will finish on top again and the sense, as Fernandinho provided the feelgood factor at the end by scoring what may well prove his final goal in City’s colours, was that they had cleared a significant hurdle. Either side of the captain’s daisycutter, a beaten Leeds were serenaded by all four stands in an extraordinary atmosphere that had rarely let up. Dominant sides have wavered under the kind of noise and aggression that greeted City from the outset: here Guardiola’s players mastered it, even if that took them time, and Leeds were obliged to chalk this one off as a free hit in what looks likely to become a tense fight against relegation.
