Manchester City escaped with three precious points at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, edging past a resilient Leeds United side 3-2 in a match that swung wildly between dominance and desperation. Phil Foden’s bookend strikes, scoring within the opening minute and deep into stoppage time, papered over cracks that continue to threaten City’s title ambitions.
The hosts appeared to have control early, with Foden’s flowing finish after just 59 seconds setting the tone before Joško Gvardiol doubled the advantage from a 24th-minute corner. But Daniel Farke’s halftime substitutions, introducing Jaka Bijol and Dominic Calvert-Lewin for Wilfried Gnonto and Daniel James, transformed the contest. Calvert-Lewin pulled one back four minutes after the restart, and when Lukas Nmecha converted a penalty rebound in the 65th minute, City’s familiar defensive fragility had allowed another lead to evaporate.
Yet Foden salvaged victory with a clinical 93rd-minute strike, delivering City’s first win in three matches and temporary respite from mounting pressure. The manner of the victory, however, raised as many questions as it answered about Guardiola’s evolving squad.
1. Foden Steps Up When City Need Him Most
Phil Foden didn’t just save Manchester City- he carried them. Opening the scoring after 59 seconds with the Premier League’s fastest goal this season, then delivering the stoppage-time winner that secured three points, Foden demonstrated the hunger and maturity that has defined his development into a complete midfielder.
His performance statistics tell only part of the story:
- 10 crosses completed
- 4 touches in the opposition box
- 4 duels won
- 4 shots (3 on target)
- 2 fouls won
- 2 goals
- 1 chance created
But numbers don’t capture the moments where Foden demanded the ball, drove at defenders, or positioned himself exactly where City needed him when pressure mounted. With Erling Haaland enduring a quieter afternoon, Foden seized the baton and refused to let City’s season slip further into crisis.
“At the end, the quality from Phil- we’re happy he’s back, two goals, and quality in finishing,” Guardiola acknowledged afterwards. That understatement barely does justice to a performance that embodied the leadership City desperately needs from their established stars.
Foden is maturing into the player City always believed he could become: technically brilliant, tactically intelligent, and possessing the character to deliver in moments that define seasons. Saturday was another step in that evolution, and City will need many more performances of this quality if they’re to salvage their title challenge.
2. City Finally Crack Their Set-Piece Struggles
There were high-fives and embraces for Manchester City set-piece coach James French as he returned to the dugout following Joško Gvardiol’s 24th-minute goal. The celebration was entirely justified, it marked the first goal City have scored from a dead-ball situation in the Premier League all season.
That statistic is staggering for a team of City’s quality and resources. Set pieces represent one of football’s most reliable avenues for goals, yet City had somehow gone months without capitalising on corners, free kicks, or any other dead-ball scenarios. The drought had become a genuine tactical concern, limiting City’s attacking variety and making them predictable against organised defences.
Gvardiol’s header from O’Reilly’s delivery wasn’t spectacular, but it was desperately needed. Breaking the set-piece curse provides City with another weapon heading into a congested fixture schedule where tight matches will require goals from every available source.
Whether this represents a genuine breakthrough or a fortunate anomaly remains to be seen. But for French and Guardiola, Saturday offered hope that months of training ground work are finally translating into matchday results.
3. City Players Are Lacking Character and Defensive Steel
Scoring goals isn’t Manchester City’s primary problem this season- holding leads and defending them tops that unfortunate chart. With summer departures stripping away experienced winners and new signings still finding their feet, City lack the collective bravery and resilience that defined previous title-winning squads.
The pattern has become depressingly familiar: City dominates early, builds comfortable advantages, then surrenders momentum through defensive lapses and mental fragility. Against Leeds, a 2-0 halftime lead should have been insurmountable. Instead, City allowed Farke’s tactical adjustments to completely destabilise their structure, conceding twice in 16 second-half minutes.
Guardiola recognised this character deficit in his pre-match press conference, making pointed comments about effort and commitment: “And I spoke with the players; ‘In front of you, all of you, I support you, but just you have to try- it’s the only thing I ask! The only thing I ask is try it!’ It’s just to try. We didn’t try [vs Bayer Leverkusen]. It’s not about playing good or bad, it’s not even trying! That was the problem.”
Those words carry extraordinary weight. Guardiola isn’t questioning technical ability or tactical understanding; he’s questioning desire, fight, and willingness to compete when matches become physical and difficult. For a manager who’s built dynasties on relentless intensity, having to plead for effort represents a damning indictment of current squad mentality.
City needs cohesiveness and trust, not just in teammates, but in themselves individually. The negative conversations about holding leads, the visible anxiety when opponents score, the collective uncertainty when under pressure, these are symptoms of a team lacking the psychological steel that separates champions from pretenders.
Saturday’s victory masked these issues temporarily, but they’ll resurface unless addressed fundamentally. Character can’t be coached easily or bought in transfer windows. It’s forged through adversity, developed through experience, and demonstrated in moments when everything feels lost. Manchester City need to find that character quickly, or their season will continue drifting toward mediocrity.
4. Nico O’Reilly Is Trustworthy, Reliable, and Growing in the Right Direction
Amid the chaos and uncertainty surrounding Manchester City’s season, one constant has emerged: Nico O’Reilly is ready for this level, and he’s improving with every appearance.
The 20-year-old’s performance against Leeds was nothing short of outstanding:
- 1 assist (Gvardiol’s goal)
- 74 touches
- 34 accurate passes (85% accuracy)
- 100% shot accuracy
- 10 duels won (most of any City player)
- 8 clearances (most of any City player)
- 7 aerial duels won (most of any City player)
- 7 touches in the opposition box
- 6 headed clearances
- 3 chances created (joint-most)
- 3 recoveries
- 2 shots on target
- 2 passes into the final third
Those numbers capture a complete performance: defensively dominant, creatively involved, physically imposing, technically secure. O’Reilly didn’t just survive against Leeds, he thrived, making more clearances, winning more duels, and creating more chances than any teammate.
Guardiola’s trust in the young Englishman is unmistakable. He’s preferred O’Reilly over new signing Rayan Ait-Nouri, who sits fit on the bench after a below-par performance against Bayer Leverkusen, where he was substituted at halftime for O’Reilly. That vote of confidence speaks volumes about how highly Guardiola rates the academy graduate.
O’Reilly embodies everything City need right now: work rate, tactical intelligence, defensive resilience, and the courage to demand the ball in difficult moments. His development trajectory suggests he’ll be a fixture in City’s line-up for years to come, providing the kind of homegrown quality that’s sustained the club’s success historically.
In a season defined by uncertainty and transition, O’Reilly represents something rare and valuable: certainty. He’s trustworthy, reliable, and growing in precisely the right direction. City needs more players following his example.
5. City’s Bench Lacks Magic When It Matters Most
For years, Manchester City have possessed the Premier League’s most devastating bench, capable of introducing world-class talent that changed matches in minutes. Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Riyad Mahrez, and countless others have entered games and delivered decisive moments that separated City from its rivals.
This season, that luxury has vanished. The bench looks refreshed on paper, stocked with new signings and promising talents. In practice, it lacks the rabbit-out-of-the-hat quality that defined previous squads.
Omar Marmoush is struggling to earn consistent minutes or demonstrate the impact expected from a significant summer investment. Oscar Bobb, once considered a breakthrough talent, appears dried up, unable to affect matches when introduced. Savinho looks like a player who signed last month rather than someone who’s had months to adapt to the Premier League’s intensity. He appears completely lost, uncertain of his role, hesitant in possession.
The killer mentality that bench players once brought- the absolute certainty they could change games individually- simply doesn’t exist in the current squad. When Guardiola needs impact substitutions to rescue dropping points or secure victories, he’s finding his options limited and ineffective.
Against Leeds, City made changes but struggled to impose themselves through substitute contributions. Foden’s individual brilliance salvaged the result, but it shouldn’t require the same starting players to carry City through 95 minutes without meaningful support from the bench.
Building squad depth that matches starting quality remains one of football’s greatest challenges. City are discovering that replacing legendary players and established winners with younger, cheaper alternatives carries inevitable consequences. The bench’s current limitations represent one of those consequences, and addressing it will require either dramatic improvement from existing players or further investment in proven quality.
Manager’s Reflection
Guardiola’s post-match assessment captured both relief and realism about City’s current state: “It’s a relief at the end we won with the situation we had, and in the Premier League we know what’s going on. It was not the perfect first-half; we lost some balls, but we didn’t concede one shot, and we created four or five, and the game could be over.”
He acknowledged the second-half struggles: “They changed system, made 5-3-2, and we conceded first and had to adjust the press. We struggled in that moment. After 2-2, we made a step up, put more players in the box with Omar, Phil, Rayan and created enough chances to score a third.”
