Manchester City kept the pressure firmly on Premier League 2025-26 leader Arsenal with a nervy 1-0 victory at Leeds United on Saturday, pulling within two points of top spot courtesy of Antoine Semenyo’s strike on the stroke of halftime.
City, which was without league-leading scorer Erling Haaland, was made to work at Elland Road, but the victory put Pep Guardiola’s side on 59 points. Arsenal, which has also played 28 games, hosts Chelsea on Sunday as the title race tightens.
Leeds had the better first-half chances, including a couple of near-misses by Dominic Calvert-Lewin, before Semenyo scored his sixth goal for City in first-half injury time.
Rayan Ait-Nouri was sent through on the left side of the box and Semenyo slid to touch home his square ball from close range.
“It means everything,” Semenyo told Sky Sports on cutting the gap to two points.
“I think we just want to win all our games, and whatever Arsenal do, we just have to wait and see. We just need to control what we can control, win our games, and yeah, we’ll see what happens. But we’re all happy,” he added.
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Second-placed City’s win was its fifth in six league games. Haaland missed the match with what Guardiola called a “little injury” in training this week. Rayan Cherki started in his place.
Leeds boss Daniel Farke made a beeline for the referee after the final whistle and was quickly shown a red card.
Buoyed by recent draws with Chelsea and Aston Villa, Leeds was on the front foot from the start, and Calvert-Lewin missed a gilt-edged chance when he inexplicably fired wide and sent another shot from a tight angle trickling past the far post.
City settled into its game and started dominating possession before Semenyo’s goal.
Leeds kicked off the second half with the same energy as it did the first, and Calvert-Lewin latched onto a ball from Anton Stach only for Matheus Nunes to charge in and clear it.
Marc Guehi nearly doubled City’s lead late in the game but his header was clawed out by Welsh goalkeeper Karl Darlow.
Leeds kept pressing, and Jaka Bijol headed a corner just wide in the dying minutes as Farke held his head in disbelief. His side is in 15th place with 31 points from 28 games, six points above the relegation zone.
Published on Mar 01, 2026