Manchester City end four-game winless league run with 2-1 comeback win over Luton Town

LONDON – This season they have taken the lead against Liverpool and Arsenal and on Dec 10 against the reigning treble holders, but once again Luton Town were unable to stay the course as they fell to a 2-1 defeat by Manchester City.

It was their fifth home league defeat by a single goal in eight matches at Kenilworth Road this season and they remain four points from safety in 18th place.

Said Luton manager Rob Edwards: “Very frustrating. We’ve come up against two top teams this week and pushed them really close. Today we got the first goal and we get to around the hour mark with relative control.

“They’re starting to push and get a little bit more territory. But top teams and players find a way and that’s what they did today.”

Pep Guardiola came into the match facing the prospect of a fifth winless league game for the first time in his managerial career, and at half-time it looked a possibility.

In first-half added time, Luton striker Elijah Adebayo found the net to send the home side ahead at the break after heading home a cross by Andros Townsend.

Despite being a direct side, the Hatters built out from the back with former England midfielder Ross Barkley showing some lovely close control, before the ball found its way to fellow former international Townsend, who pinged the ball perfectly onto the head of Adebayo.

It marked the first time City have gone 1-0 down for three consecutive games since November 2019 – the last time they ended the season without lifting the English Premier League title.

That increased the jitters for a fourth-placed City side who had taken just three points from a possible 12 and had conceded nine times in their last four matches.

To make matters worse, they were missing goal machine Erling Haaland, who was not even in the squad after suffering a bone stress reaction in his foot. His return date is unclear.

But even without him, they managed to turn things around in the second half.

The comeback started in the 62nd minute through Bernardo Silva. After Rodri strode forward and was tackled by Tom Lockyer, the ball fell kindly to Silva, who fired a left-footed curler past Thomas Kaminski.

Three minutes later, City turned the match around.

Julian Alvarez latched on to Phil Foden’s through ball before laying the ball into the box for Jack Grealish to make it 2-1.

Guardiola told the BBC: “Great performance after what happened in the last results. It was a really good test and the players reacted as they had to.

“That is the challenge. They are still there in the way that they run, they fight and here and behave how we behave I am really proud.”

Grealish told Sky Sports of their difficult run: “I think a lot of people like to talk about City and go on like it’s a big crisis, in reality we’ve played very good teams.

“Spurs who’ve been unbelievable, Liverpool who are top, Chelsea and (Aston) Villa away, who’ve got one of the best records in Europe.

“We knew we had to keep calm today and buzzing to get back to winning ways.”

In other matches on Dec 10, Fulham recorded successive 5-0 wins after a thumping triumph over West Ham United, which manager Marco Silva called “almost perfect”, while Everton won their third straight league game for the first time since March 2021 with a 2-0 win over Chelsea.

Harry Wilson, who scored Fulham’s fourth, told the BBC: “We keep getting in the right areas. We were doing that earlier this season but maybe the runs weren’t there or we weren’t filling the spaces.”

Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure found the net with his 11th goal excluding penalties since Sean Dyche took over as Everton manager in February – more than any other Premier League midfielder.

He said: “I’m very happy, two goals in two games. I’m delighted for the team. It is a good number for me, so I just want to keep going.”

The Blues, meanwhile, lost their second successive match.

Said Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino: “Football is about scoring goals and we were not clinical in front of goal.

“I’m really, really disappointed.”