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Kompany stunner hands Manchester City 1-0 win over Leicester City

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Vincent Kompany nets stunning strike from outside the box as Pep Guardiola’s side defeat Leicester City 1-0 to go top of Premier League table.

The skipper’s strike in the second half was enough to see off the stubborn visitors, who went into the encounter ‘parking the bus’.

Pep Guardiola made just one change to the side that had started the narrow win at Burnley, with 18-year-old Phil Foden replacing Leroy Sane, restoring Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva to their more familiar roles on the left and right of the front three respectively.

Leicester, meanwhile, were unchanged from the line-up that had thumped Arsenal last weekend, with Jamie Vardy looking to enhance his record of having scored more goals against Guardiola’s City than any other player.

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Leicester started well, determined not to abandon the kind of slick football that has quickly become the hallmark of Brendan Rodgers’ brief reign, and but for a brilliant block from Vincent Kompany might have taken the lead through the ever-lively Ricardo Pereira after he dummied inside off the right flank.

At the other end, Foden fired straight at Schmeichel on the swivel, before the Danish ‘keeper did brilliantly to claw Sergio Aguero’s glancing header away after it had come down off the underside of the bar.

That chance aside, though, the Argentine striker had been a peripheral figure.

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As half-time approached without a goal, the anxiety around the Etihad was clear for all to hear, with the home crowd fuming at Schmeichel’s time wasting, and twice screaming for fouls after obviously clean tackles on Sterling.

The second half began with one-way traffic, as Sterling nodded over the bar from a looping David Silva knock back, before dragging wide on his left foot.

With Leicester having far less joy in retaining possession and creating chances of their own than they had in the first half, Guardiola went for the kill, withdrawing Foden for Sane and pushing Sterling up alongside Aguero in a 4-2-4 formation.

As it had in the Manchester derby win last month, Sane’s introduction instantly added a zip to City’s play, but a rampaging run from Harry Maguire to tee-up James Maddison’s long range effort was a reminder of Leicester’s threat on the break.

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But then came Kompany, striding up from the halfway line position that he had occupied as a spectator for much of the second half, to score the goal that will surely now go down as the defining moment of this most remarkable title race, and an instant Premier League classic.

City still needed some wasteful finishing from one of their former players, substitute Kelechi Iheanacho, who slotted wide when gloriously placed to add yet another late twist to this dramatic season.

 

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