WHEN Pep Guardiola suffers injuries to his star-studded squad, it is a case of getting out the world’s smallest violin.
Yet despite the millions City have spent on players, there is not a club in the world who would not miss Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne and in-form Jeremy Doku.
And so Guardiola’s struggling team, low on confidence and facing a fifth successive Premier League game without a win, avoided being plunged into a fully-blown crisis after being rescued with goals from Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish.
When Elijah Adebayo headed Luton into the lead in first half stoppage time, this goal did not merely give the home team another huge lift.
It set-up the possibility of becoming one of THE greatest Premier League shocks while a home win would also have had a huge impact on the title race.
Yet Silva levelled in the 62nd minute and Grealish grabbed only his second goal of the season three minutes later.
Yet this was still a far from easy win for City. And fair play to Rob Edwards’ Luton who continue to show they do have a chance – however slim – of remaining in the top-flight, purely because they are so bloody difficult to play against at Kenilworth Road.
While City hope to welcome back de Bruyne soon while Doku has been playing well, to be without Haaland for the first time in the League this season was a huge blow.
Equally, the lack of players saw Guardiola name two goalkeepers on the substitutes bench.
City go to Red Star Belgrade for a dead rubber on Wednesday as they have already won Champions League Group D.
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After next Saturday’s home game with Crystal Palace, City will then fly to Saudi Arabia for the FIFA Club World Cup in Jeddah and they will hope to have Haaland back then.
As for Luton, this fixture was the latest proof of how far this completely rejuvenated club has come. On the corresponding weekend a decade ago, Luton won 5-0 away at Alfreton in the National League.
This was City’s first visit to Kenilworth Road since 1998. As ever, Luton’s fans made a right old noise, despite the small capacity of the ground, and they sang to City’s fans: ‘’Conference champions, you’ll never sing that”.
City had plenty of the ball in the first half and while Luton keeper Thomas Kaminski was forced to make saves from Phil Foden and Rodri, the champions were still poor in the final third.
Julian Alvarez filled in for Haaland yet he was not much of a threat. When Grealish opened up the home defence with a clever pass, Alvarez side-footed the ball into the sidenetting.
In first half injury-time, Luton did what they should have been trying earlier – and that was to get some high balls in the box towards Adebayo.
Barkley started the move with some nifty footwork in midfield, Alfie Doughty teed up Andros Townsend whose cross to the far post was perfect for Adebayo to leap above Ruben Dias to score.
City needed to start the second half strongly but they took 15 minutes to really threaten, although Dias should have scored from close-range but he hammered a shot against the bar.
Yet 60 seconds later, Silva equalised with a much more difficult effort, a first time shot into the corner from just inside the area after Rodri’s run had been blocked by Tom Lockyer.
City smelt blood and went for the jugular. Luton appealed for a handball from Alvarez but the ref correctly allowed play to continue as the ball seemed to hit the player’s face. Alvarez crossed from the right, Teden Mengi got himself in a tangle and failed to clear and Grealish had an easy chance at the far post.
For Grealsh and the rest of his relieved City team, it was all smiles – but it could have been very different.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
