Luton Town 1 Man City 2
The Hatters welcomed Man City to Kenilworth Road, buoyed by news that Erling Haaland had not travelled with the squad due to injury. After their epic encounter with Arsenal during the week, Rob Edwards’ side came into this with a newfound confidence.
Man City started the game strongly with Bernardo Silva slotting it through the hosts’ defence to find the run of Phil Foden. His shot was well saved by Kaminski but the rebound was sliced wide on the volley from Pep’s usually reliable Portuguese playmaker.
City’s passing game was mesmerising Luton at times, unable to do anything about it. As Alvarez, Silva and Foden exchanged passes, it was finally Rodri who got a shot away. Kaminski made a great one-handed save to keep the scores level.
The Hatters needed to close down Man City’s attackers more if they were to have any hope of this not becoming a battering. Foden shifted it onto his left foot and drilled in a low shot that Kaminski got down smartly to parry and gratefully held onto the ball as it bounced up from his initial save.
Credit: @LutonTown
Luton Town’s keeper was the only reason the scores were level towards the end of the first half as he came out to block another Foden effort from a tight angle. It was almost like attack versus defence for the first 45 minutes.
Barkley then did well winning the ball back before spreading it out wide to Andros Townsend. He lofted a ball towards the back post and Elijiah Adebayo rose to head past Ederson and make it one-nil to The Hatters, just before the break.
Pep Guardiola’s side came out for the second half and continued to play their football. As a ball was lofted into the box, the hosts struggled to clear and the visitors claimed for a handball. Dias played the whistle and got a shot away which rattled the crossbar and came back out.
VAR reviewed the incident and decided there was no action to be taken. Rodri then ran towards goal before being blocked off in the box, with the ball running to Silva who drilled it into the bottom corner. It was a great finish by the playmaker.
Luton were then the architects of their own downfall as they gifted possession to the visitors. Foden fed it to Alvarez out wide, who played a teasing ball across the box. Grealish was on the back post to put the defending champions ahead for the first time in the game.
Ross Barkley is starting to show some of the form that tempted Chelsea to sign him from Everton. As he weaved his way amongst the City defenders, he got a shot away but it was always curling away from Ederson’s goal.
Credit: @ManCity
The tackles started to fly in from both sides as things started to get a little feisty. Alvarez tried his luck from outside the box but his effort fizzed over the crossbar with Kaminski beaten. The Luton keeper will look forward to his rest day as Man City worked him for the entire game.
Pep Guardiola’s side held onto the three points and Luton Town were left wondering ‘what if’ again. They need to take the positives from their two recent defeats and take these performances into their upcoming games. If they play at these levels, the points will come.
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