Pep hopes Laporte’s return will boost City campaign after Blades win

A delighted Pep Guardiola admitted that he hopes the return of injured Aymeric Laporte will boost Manchester City’s faltering campaign after their victory over Sheffield United on Tuesday.

Riding on a spectacular goal by in-form Sergio Aguero, City sealed a hard-fought 1-0 victory against Sheffield to close gap on the leaders Liverpool. City are second, 13 points adrift of the leaders Liverpool, having played two games more.

Earlier, Guardiola’s side were labouring to break the deadlock until Aguero came off the bench to end the stubborn resistence of Sheffield at Bramall Lane.

City striker Gabriel Jesus had a penalty saved by Dean Henderson in the first half but with 17 minutes left Aguero bagged his seventh goal in four appearances in 2020.

While City’s hopes of winning a third successive title have fainted by a combination of their own stuttering performances and Liverpool’s incredible form, there is still much to play for this term.

Guardiola harbours dreams of leading City to their first Champions League crown and they also face an FA Cup date with Fulham this weekend, followed by the League Cup semi-final second leg against Manchester United. With those cup ambitions in mind, Guardiola will have been encouraged by the way City coped with the Blades’ aggressive game-plan and emerged with a fourth win from their last five league matches.

“Sergio is on fire right now. Strikers need momentum. It’s good for us to have strikers in this form,” Guardiola said.

“I’m so happy with the team. I know what it’s like to play here, it is a tough place. We controlled it well and in the end we created chances to win.” Keeping just their third clean sheet in 14 league games was another boost for Guardiola, who gave French defender Laporte his first appearance since August after recovering from a serious knee injury.

Laporte had been back in training for over a week, but his presence in the starting line-up for the first time in 143 days was a surprise as Guardiola had hinted he was not set to feature just yet.

“We knew that Aymeric couldn’t play for 90 minutes, that’s why we played five at the back to protect him a little bit. He’s a crucial player for us, we’ve missed him, it’s good for us to have him back,” Guardiola said after Laporte came off in the closing stages.

Meanwhile, ten-man Arsenal twice came from behind to salvage a 2-2 draw at Chelsea despite a nightmare return to Stamford Bridge for David Luiz.

The Brazilian was sent-off after just 26 minutes for hauling down Tammy Abraham and Jorginho converted the resulting penalty.

However, Chelsea’s struggles at the Bridge continued and they offered another lifeline to those challenging for a top-four finish, with Gabriel Martinelli allowed to run almost the length of the field to equalise midway through the second half.

Cesar Azpilicueta had appeared to end Arsenal’s resistence six minutes from time, but Hector Bellerin levelled once more in a thrilling finale.

A point extends Chelsea’s lead over Manchester United in fifth to six points, but the Red Devils can cut that gap to three with victory over Burnley on Wednesday.

Arsenal remain in 10th, 10 points behind their hosts, and despite admitting before the match that his side had to win to maintain any hope of securing a return to the Champions League, Mikel Arteta will be proud of the spirit showed by the visitors. Frank Lampard’s men have now won just four of their last 12 league games, including home defeats to West Ham, Bournemouth and Southampton, and they were again guilty of a lack of creativity at one end and defensive lapses at the other.

Chelsea started brightly and only a brave block from Shkodran Mustafi denied Mateo Kovacic as he fired goalwards after a fine team move instigated by Callum Hudson-Odoi and Azpilicueta.

Lampard spoke of his desire for Chelsea to be more clinical after losing 1-0 at Newcastle on Saturday with Paris Saint-Germain’s all-time top goalscorer Edison Cavani a target.

Agencies

English Premier League results on Tuesday:
Aston Villa 2 (Luiz 68, Mings 90+5) Watford 1 (Deeney 38)
Bournemouth 3 (H. Wilson 36, Gross 41-og, C. Wilson 74) Brighton 1 (Mooy 81)
Chelsea 2 (Jorginho 28-pen, Azpilicueta 84) Arsenal 2 (Martinelli 63, Bellerin 87)