Leeds United progress hard to judge when Manchester City are so good but 2-1 defeat provides straws to grasp at

Most teams can beat most others, but Manchester City are on a different planet.

It is true Pep Guardiola’s treble-chasers are not unbeatable – Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds United won at Eastlands two years ago despite being a man short for the majority of the game. But victories like that are so unexpected, so improbable.

"They are so good aren't they?" said Sam Allardyce after his first game as Leeds’s caretaker manager.

Saturday really was a day to highlight the gulf between the haves and the have nots.

So defeats have to be viewed soberly and in perspective. As Gary Neville said in midweek, it is "how you lose" to City.

Asked if his quest to keep Leeds in the Premier League was only ever realistically about the next three games, Allardyce replied: "I can say yes now it's over. I couldn't before."

By any metric bar the scoreline, this was an absolute thrashing. But the 2-1 margin offered straws for Allardyce to grasp at as he looks to rescue what six days earlier looked a pretty damned United.

Goal difference will not cancel City’s coronation but matters to Leeds. A repeat of last season's 7-0 would have dragged them within touching distance of Nottingham Forest's dismal number.

After batterings by Crystal Palace, Liverpool and, in Javi Gracia's final game, Bournemouth, a respectable scoreline allows Leeds to kid themselves this was not another. That they did not self-implode again was a very real positive.

On the back of a midweek game at West Ham United and with a trip to Real Madrid on Tuesday, Guardiola rested seven "tired" players.

"It's not just the best team, they have the two best teams," argued Allardyce.

Two? That might be harsh on City who rested Rodri without using his deputy, Kalvin Phillips. A deeper Ilkay Gundogan was a penalty against a post away from a hat-trick.

And when John Stones got an afternoon off they did not turn to fellow Yorkshireman Kyle Walker, but let 18-year-old Rico Lewis have a go at the central-midfielder-cum-right-back role. He was brilliant too.

According to WhoScored.com, City had 1,034 touches of the ball – more than three times as many as Leeds. Gundogan alone was reckoned to make 171 accurate passes, the entire visiting team 120.

Statistics like that can be deceptive. Not when the gulf is so massive.

City were incredibly good in the first half but Leeds were woeful. In the second the hosts preferred control to aggression. It nearly cost them.

Erling Haaland had the sort of day he almost never has. In the 17th minute he forced Joel Robles to stick out a right knee for his first Premier League save in six years after the mercy-dropping of Illan Meslier. Haaland miskicked a shot at the end of the first half and hit the woodwork twice in the second, albeit only his 61st-minute header would have stood (the other was offside).

No wonder the away end sang "You're Leeds and you know you are."

His final act of charity to the city of his birth was passing up an 84th-minute penalty, handing the ball to Gundogan, who smacked it against an upright. Seconds later Manuel Akanji failed to deal with a long ball, Junior Firpo headed it on and substitute Rodrigo finished smartly.

It was Leeds's last shot but still made City fans who goaded Allardyce in the first half with "You're being sacked in the morning," and complained even earlier about the time Robles was taking over goalkicks, squirm.

You would never have imagined it when Leeds were funnelling men back but so narrowly Riyad Mahrez had acres of space on the right, when the shock of having the ball seemed to make them give it back straight away and nothing stuck with the isolated Patrick Bamford.

Although Robles created a chance by flapping at a deep ball and juggled a Mahrez free-kick on his line, the goalkeeping was an upgrade. Adam Forshaw provided energy and a much-needed fifth body in Leeds's midfield on his first start of 2023.

But both goals – created on the right – were like Jefferson Lerma's in the first half at Bournemouth in that they were scored from far too much space despite the numbers back.

Right winger Mahrez – probably not in Guardiola's best XI – was a particular pest in the first half cutting back on his left foot.

"I haven't seen anybody stopping Mahrez going on his stronger foot yet so if you find anybody (who can), let me know and I'll watch him but I won't be able to buy him because he'll probably be about £30m," said Allardyce. And the rest, Sam.

Leeds's next opponents are poor, down-trodden Newcastle United.

The question is if they can build on Saturday’s positives enough to make them count against the Champions League-bound Magpies and attack more winnable final games against West Ham and Tottenham Hotspur with more than 30 points.

Things are already better than in the last days of Gracia. The question is if they have improved enough. Saturday was never likely to tell us.

Manchester City: Ederson; Akanji, Ake (Walker 54), Laporte; Lewis, Gundogan (Rodri 90); Mahrez, Alvarez (Silva 87), De Bruyne, Foden, Haaland. Unused substitutes: Dias, Phillips, Stones, Grealish, Ortega, Gomez.

Leeds United: Robles, Kristensen, Ayling, Wober, Firpo; Gnonto (Rodrigo 58), McKennie, Forshaw (Struijk 80), Roca (Greenwood 58), Harrison (Summerville 65); Bamford (Aaronson 80). Unused substitutes: Meslier, Koch, Rutter, Gray.

Referee: A Madley (Huddersfield).