MANCHESTER CITY END THEIR FOUR GAME WINLESS RUN.

After three draws, and a loss to Aston Villa last Wednesday, the Premier league champions are back to winning ways. Their previous matches have well been against top teams but once you see yourself in the title race, it's against top teams, one needs to show your quality and hunger for the Premier league title. In just four games, Manchester City have conceded a total of nine goals which is something you don't see from a world class team like them usually. Teams have key players, and these set of key players are so crucial to a team in terms of their morale and how they play. Once these set of key players are absent from a team, much is less expected from them. And eventually when they go into a match without a key player or more, there's a high probability that such team don't win that match. It was evident in their consecutive matches when their captain, Kevin De Bryune was absent because of injury, and is still, till now. But Julian Alvarez, a striker, due to his capabilities was slotted into De bruyne's position and he has thrived so far at his new position. It was also evident in their loss to Aston Villa when Rodri was also absent from the game because his yellow card suspension was due already. This season Man City has more win percentage when Rodri is on the field. But after losing to Aston Villa, they couldn't afford to drop points again. Erling Haaland was missing from the squad that faced Luton at Kenilworth Road due to him sustaining a minor injury to his leg after the Villa game. Pep didn't wanted to risk him after he(Haaland) claimed on being fine, so he omitted him from the squad. Nathan Ake made his 100th City appearance as he made the squad. And so this was how they lined up against the newly promoted side, Luton:

[SOURCE: https://twitter.com/ManCity/status/1733834005412233221?t=Wlnf4BPQTRcEUtP4vBylnQ&s=19]

THE START!
•It was a reasonable start to the game with Man City in control as usual.
•Phil Foden(Man City) had the first shot of the game but Thomas Kaminski(Luton) showed off his skills and made a brilliant save to deny him.
•Man City continued to control the game with a high percentage of possession but Luton players also continued to showcase great teamwork by making pin-point, short and long passes from player to player.
•Tim Robinson, the Referee in charge continued to interrupt the match with his whistle as Luton continued to give away the ball so easily and concede fouls frequently.
•Twenty minutes were in already and the statistics showed that shots on target were Luton 0:2 Man City.
•Man City continued to make wonderful movements and their players held enough possession. At the thirty-fifth minute, the ball possession was at 29:71. Shots were taken by Grealish(Man City) and Kovacic(Man City) consecutively but all was in vain.
•First half was close to an end as two additional minutes were given.
•Ross Barkley(Luton), the former Chelsea man made some wonderful movements in midfield, passed the ball to Doughty (Luton), gave it to Townsend (Luton) who made a cross to the far edge of the goal post and Elijah Adebayo(Luton) made no mistake with his header. GOAL! LUTON 0-1 MAN CITY.
•The Referee blew his whistle to end the first half.

SECOND HALF.
•The players were out and the referee blew to to signal the start of the second half.
•Luton played out brilliantly and won the first corner kick of the second half, but Man City did well to defend that.
•Marvelous Nakamba (Luton) continued to make countless of bad tackles and he picked up the first yellow card of the match.
•Ruben Dias(Man City) finds the ball and stroke the ball and it crashed against the bar. It could have been a brilliant goal.
•Man City continued to penetrate through Luton midfield. Rodri(Man City) found a way into the box with the ball, but collided with Tom Lockyer(Luton), and Bernardo Silva(Man City) picked up the ball from a rebound and fired a low shot into the bottom left corner. GOAL! What a goal it was, as Kaminski (Luton) wasn't able to keep the ball out of the net. Man City equalized. LUTON 1-1 MAN CITY.
•In a space of three minutes, Jack Grealish(Man City) found the net after a square play from Alvarez (Man City), but the referee ruled it out for an handball. VAR got involved and the verdict was made. GOAL! The goal stood and it was two for Man City. LUTON 1-2 MAN CITY.
•Pep(Man City's coach) made his first change with John Stones coming in for Josko Gvardiol.
•At the 73rd and 77th minute, Rodri(Man City) and Doughty(Luton) picked up yellow cards consecutively.
•Man City continued to look for a third to seal the game as shots from Bernardo was blocked and one from Alvarez went over the bar.
•Man City made another change at the 83rd minute with Matheus Nunes replacing Mateo Kovacic. Luton also made a few changes.
•There were series of play from both teams as they both continued to search for goal. Six minutes were added as Manuel Akanji replaced Phil Foden for Man City.
•The referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the match and that was it.

Manchester City found a way to end their winless run on a difficult day.

FULL TIME: LUTON 1-2 MAN CITY.

[SOURCE: https://twitter.com/ManCity/status/1733878590255591526?t=LeFR09ojZZEQKkX3AnC5og&s=19]