Billed pre-game as the injured Erling Haaland’s capable stand-in, Omar Marmoush’s response was to score Manchester City’s second goal against a weak Leicester, who are heading for the relegation trapdoor.
Pep Guardiola adores the Champions League so this was business accomplished in the bid to seal a qualification berth: victory lifts City to fourth.
Jack Grealish opened proceedings but a scan of his numbers showed his early strike to be only a third goal in what goes down as a lost season on the CV. It was also a first Premier League finish since December 2023.
As is the narrative of City’s own underwhelming campaign, they lacked sharpness and intensity and Guardiola will spend the close season addressing this as he targets a return to a high-octane game.
Those who waited until nine minutes to take their seat in protest at City partnering with Viagogo, a ticket resale site, missed a goal on 70 seconds. This was Grealish’s, who prospered when Savinho roved down the right, spied him lurking and found the No 10, who beat Mads Hermansen to the goalkeeper’s right.
Already, this felt like the Foxes would be lucky to leave without serious embarrassment. Guardiola, seated in the stands due to a one-game ban, swigged from a bottle of water and would be overjoyed at his choice of Grealish as the playmaker.
The manager’s other notable change from the FA Cup win at Bournemouth, he made six, was handing Nico O’Reilly a full Premier League debut against a visitor showing the same XI as the loss to Manchester United last time out.
That was a seventh straight league reverse for Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men. They last scored in a competition on 7 February via Bobby De Cordova-Reid. So when finally planting a few boots in City territory there was scant surprise that Bilal El Khannouss tried to curl an equaliser past Ederson from long range.
He missed but more measured was a move down the right that ended when Patson Daka twisted away from Josko Gvardiol, yet ran the ball out. This Leicester advance pointed to City lacking the iron-fisted control of past seasons. Where once the ball was hogged and guarded, now sloppiness tells the opponent they have a real chance.
Rúben Dias’s loose pass upfield to no one was an example. So too was Savinho slipping over the ball to allow El Khannouss to take possession. After this show of City weakness, cue Leicester imploding, or rather Hermansen; another poorly aimed Dias ball went straight into the keeper’s hands, but he spilled and Marmoush steered home off an upright.
“Duck shoot” and “slaughter incoming” came to mind as the dark blues were shell-shocked, the light blues rampant. Marmoush went close to netting a seventh goal since joining in January but a shot was blocked. Then Savinho drew a sharp Hermansen save after Ilkay Gündogan crossed.
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City players lined up to take pot shots at goal and from his bird’s eye view Guardiola enjoyed this domination, but a nag was only a two-goal lead as the players wandered off for their interval refreshments.
Juanma Lillo, his assistant taking charge for the evening, had mirrored this with shows of frustration, so the players were no doubt instructed to be more ruthless in the second 45 minutes.
If so, a Grealish miscontrol of an errant O’Reilly pass was hardly the best start. Moments later Grealish weaved into the area, Leicester parted like the proverbial and the forward fell on his backside. He demanded a penalty but Darren England was not interested, nor did the VAR ask the referee to take a second look. Replays seemed to show a Grealish miskick only.
In potent form City know when to speed up the patient stuff, as Grealish did when pivoting, darting infield and finding O’Reilly. Suddenly the local boy saw an opening and a smart outside-of-the-boot stab followed that might have been City’s third. Yet cleverness was absent from Marmoush’s wild blaze over following silken Savinho-Grealish-Jérémy Doku passes: at point-blank range the Egyptian should have made it 3-0 and put Leicester away.
But no, and what ensued was tepid fare. City were at 70%-plus possession and the counter showed 14 shots to Leicester’s paltry one but the champions had settled in a keep-ball mode, tapping it about in and around halfway.
A Savinho pratfall summed this up. Sunday’s crosstown trip to Manchester United for the 196th derby will hopefully be more vibrant.