Manchester City’s 5-1 victory over Luton Town at Etihad Stadium sees Pep Guardiola’s side rise to claim the top spot in the Premier League, at least until tomorrow’s action gets underway.
An own goal from Daiki Hashioka after just 65 seconds allowed Manchester City to carry a slender lead into the break, before Mateo Kovačić and Erling Haaland built a comfortable advantage in the second half.
Ross Barkley clinched one back for the Hatters within the final ten minutes, but Jérémy Doku and Joško Gvardiol netted late on to seal a comfortable victory in the end for Pep Guardiola’s men.
Embed from Getty ImagesLiverpool host Crystal Palace at 14:00 BST on Sunday, with Arsenal hosting Aston Villa at 16:30. Manchester City could drop to third in the league table, depending on the results in those matches.
As it happened
Having found the back of his own net against Arsenal earlier this month, Luton Town’s Daiki Hashioka was perhaps unlucky to register another own goal within the opening minutes of Saturday’s clash in Manchester.
The Japanese defender was struck by a wayward attempt from Erling Haaland, with the deflection catching Thomas Kaminski off-guard and allowing the Cityzens to seize an early lead.
That early blunder would be the only goal to separate the two teams at the interval, and Manchester City ramped up the tempo in the second half as they sought to put distance between themselves and their relegation-threatened opponents.
Mateo Kovačić struck gold from the edge of the penalty area with 64 minutes on the clock, before a foul on Jérémy Doku from Fred Onyedinma allowed Erling Haaland to slot home from twelve yards out and build a buffer.
Embed from Getty ImagesBut Ross Barkley struck back as the match ticked into the final ten minutes, capitalising on a mistake from Matheus Nunes to give the Hatters a late glimmer of hope.
It was quickly dashed though, with Doku cutting inside to pick out the bottom corner six minutes later. The Belgian international would be involved once again inside stoppage time, teeing up Joško Gvardiol for City’s fifth and final goal of the afternoon.
The lineups
MCI: Ederson; Gvardiol, Akanji, Dias, Lewis; Kovačić, Nunes; Doku, De Bruyne, Álvarez; Haaland
LUT: Kaminski; Doughty, Burke, Hashioka; Chong, Barkley, Berry, Onyedinma; Clark, Townsend; Morris
