Manchester City vs Leeds United preview: Daniel Farke aims for Etihad upset amid mounting pressure

Manchester City welcome Leeds United to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Pep Guardiola’s 100th Champions League game with City ended in a 2-0 home defeat against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night. The Cityzens suffered a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle in the Premier League last weekend.

Leeds fell to a 2-1 home loss to Aston Villa last time out and will be looking to return to winning ways.

Match preview

Man City have won their last four Premier League games against Leeds, scoring 16 goals in the process. It’s as many victories as they had in their first 16 against the Whites in the competition (D5 L7).

Leeds have lost their last two away league games against Man City, going down 7-0 in 2021 and 2-1 in 2023. They last lost more consecutively at the Citizens between 1963 and 1968 (4).

Pep Guardiola’s side have won 23 of their last 25 Premier League games against promoted sides (D2), with their last such defeat coming at home to Leeds in April 2021.

The Whites have lost five of their last six Premier League games (W1), including the last three in a row. They’ve scored first in their last two matches but have never lost three in a row, having opened the scoring each time.

Since losing their first home league game of the season against Spurs, City have now won each of their last five at the Etihad by an aggregate score of 16-2.

Leeds have conceded at least once in each of their last nine Premier League games, having kept a clean sheet in two of their opening three matches this season.

Each of the Peacocks’ last four Premier League goals have been scored in the opening 15 minutes of games; they’ve netted more goals in this timeframe than any other side this season (4).

Erling Haaland’s next goal for Man City will be his 100th in the Premier League. He’s scored in each of his last five league games at the Etihad Stadium, only having a longer run between August and November 2022 (6).

Leeds boss Daniel Farke beat Manchester City in the Premier League with Norwich back in September 2019. The only manager to beat the Citizens with two different promoted clubs is Bryan Robson (Middlesbrough in 1995/96 and West Bromwich Albion in 2004/05).

Team news

Manchester City

The host will be without midfield duo Mateo Kovacic and Rodri, who are unavailable due to injuries.

Leeds United

Anton Stach was forced off with concussion concerns in last weekend’s defeat to Aston Villa and will miss the trip to Manchester as a result of concussion protocols.

Sean Longstaff and Sebastiaan Bornauw are sidelined for the visitors.

Predicted line-ups

Manchester City: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Matheus Nunes, Rúben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Nico O’Reilly, Bernardo Silva, Nico Gonzalez, Rayan Cherki, Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland.

Leeds United: Lucas Perri, Jayden Bogle, Joseph Rodon, Pascal Struijk, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Illia Gruev, Ethan Ampadu, Ao Tanaka, Daniel James, Lukas Nmecha, Wilfried Gnonto.