PHIL Foden spared Manchester City’s blushes with the last-gasp winner after the Premier League title challengers blew a two-goal lead in a dramatic 3-2 win over lowly Leeds on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side were in danger of losing more ground in the title race following a second half collapse at the Etihad Stadium.
Foden and Josko Gvardiol put City two up before the interval, but third-bottom Leeds hit back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha.
Foden clinched a nerve-jangling victory that lifted City into second place, four points behind leaders Arsenal, who travel to third-placed Chelsea on Sunday.
It was a much-needed win after consecutive defeats against Newcastle last weekend and Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.
Guardiola’s decision to make 10 changes against Leverkusen backfired in a 2-0 loss that prompted the furious Spaniard to claim his players “didn’t try”.
Foden, Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Gianluigi Donnarumma were among the stars back in City’s starting line-up for the Leeds clash.
City had made their worst start to a campaign for five years and their second-worst under Guardiola.
But they took just 59 seconds to move in front as Foden fired a close-range strike in off the bar after Matheus Nunes’ burst unhinged the Leeds defence.
Leeds had no answer to City’s slick start and Gvardiol looked to have put the hosts in complete control with a tap-in from Nico O’Reilly’s header in the 25th minute.
Despite Leeds’ protests that Silva was offside and blocking keeper Lucas Perri’s view, the goal was allowed to stand after a VAR check.
Calvert-Lewin made an immediate impact after coming off the bench, reducing the deficit with a clinical finish after pouncing on Nunes’ woeful pass inside the City area in the 49th minute.
Leeds grabbed a shock equaliser in the 68th minute when Gvardiol fouled Calvert-Lewin.
Although Nmecha’s penalty was saved by Donnarumma, the forward recovered to score from the rebound.
Chasing his 100th top-flight goal, Haaland was unusually subdued but Foden picked up the slack in stoppage-time, cleverly making room in the area for an ice-cool finish as Guardiola breathed a sigh of relief.
Leeds’ sixth defeat in their last seven matches increased the pressure on manager Daniel Farke.