X reacts to Man City’s scare against Luton

Manchester City were staring down the barrel of a shock defeat when Elijah Adebayo nodded Luton Town into the lead at Kenilworth Road on Sunday afternoon.

It took a second-half salvo spearheaded by Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish to spare City’s blushes and snap an unusually barren patch.

The treble winners came into the match on the back of their worst Premier League form in more than six years, stringing together as many as four consecutive games without a win.

Pep Guardiola was without top scorer Erling Haaland, who didn’t make the trip to Kenilworth Road after aggravating an existing foot injury. Although, most onlookers were more concerned with the impact of Haaland’s absence on their Fantasy Football team rather than City’s chances of suffering a defeat.

Unlike their humbling loss at Villa Park on Wednesday night, City dominated almost every stat line in the first half of Sunday’s contest – even the ones that they wanted to avoid.

City’s second foul throw of the first half – which prompted chants of “that is embarrassing” from a buoyant crowd came shortly before Luton’s unexpected opener. Bernardo Silva was penalised for a minimal offence if any occurred at all.

Two stars of the Premier League a decade ago combined to wound the reigning champions before the half-time whistle. Ross Barkley, five days on from his superb display in defeat to Arsenal, continued to excel from a deeper midfield role. It was his Zinedine Zidane-esque twirl that allowed Andros Townsend to get on the ball in City’s final third.

Townsend rolled back the years on his own biological clock when eye-to-eye with Josko Gvardiol, a defender more than a decade his junior. The 32-year-old’s in-swinging cross picked out Adebayo at the back post, sending City behind and Guardiola into a rage.

City’s manager, who may have been questioning the severity of Bernardo’s foul throw, was a little cheerier after Bernardo swatted his side level shortly after the hour mark. Barely three minutes had elapsed before Thomas Kaminski, Luton’s overworked shot-stopper, was pulling the ball out of the net again.

Unlike his late strike against Tottenham Hotspur, City managed to hold onto a lead provided by Grealish without much fuss or controversy – despite what those in Kenilworth Road may have thought.

City had not endured five consecutive league appearances without a win since a seven-game drought in the autumn of 2009. Guardiola had never been condemned to such a fate in his managerial career. Fortunately for the Catalan, no new history was being written on Sunday.

For Luton, Rob Edwards’ side had scored four goals across consecutive games against Arsenal and City – last season’s top two – yet emerged with precisely zero points.

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