Foden rescues Man City with late winner against Leeds as Haaland blanks again

Erling Haaland has finally stopped scoring. Luckily for Manchester City, Phil Foden stepped up with two goals — one very early and the other very late — to rescue a win in the Premier League on Saturday.

A wild 3-2 victory over Leeds was sealed by Foden’s curling shot in the first minute of stoppage time, allowing City to jump to second place and trim the gap to Arsenal to four points.

The England playmaker earlier scored after just 59 seconds — for what briefly was the fastest goal in the league this season — before Josko Gvardiol added a second for City in the 25th.

Leeds, which is languishing in the relegation zone, replied in the second half through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha — a striker who came through City’s academy — as City showed frailties exposed in defeats over the past week to Newcastle in the league and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.

Foden saved City with his late intervention, answering the call of manager Pep Guardiola for others to share the scoring burden that has fallen almost entirely on Haaland this season.

The Norway striker has failed to score in three straight games for City — having netted in 17 of his previous 18 matches for club and country in what was the hottest streak of his career — and remains on 99 goals in the Premier League.

Reaching the 100-goal milestone against Leeds, where he was born in 2000, would have been poignant but the wait goes on.

“He’ll do it next game,” said Guardiola, who had an animated discussion with Haaland on the field after the final whistle.

Arsenal can restore its seven-point cushion over City by winning on Sunday at Chelsea, which has dropped to third.

Earliest goal

Foden was displaced as the scorer of the Premier League’s earliest goal of the season just a couple of hours later.

Newcastle defender Malick Thiaw glanced home a header at a corner after 55 seconds to set his team on its way to a 4-1 win at Everton.

The German center back scored another after the break, adding to goals from Lewis Miley and Nick Woltemade, to make it 4-0. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall scored Everton’s consolation.

Sunderland fightback

Sunderland produced an even better fightback than Leeds, also coming from two goals down and going on to beat Bournemouth 3-2 at the Stadium of Light.

Brian Brobbey completed the comeback with the winner in the 69th for Sunderland, while Bournemouth’s second goal was a shot from nearly 50 meters by U.S. midfielder Tyler Adams.

Thiago spree

While Haaland goes through a mini-drought, his nearest challenger in the Premier League scoring chart cannot stop hitting the back of the net.

Igor Thiago converted a penalty and added another goal for Brentford in a 3-1 win at home to Burnley.

The Brazilian striker moved onto nine goals for the campaign, five behind Haaland after 13 games.

Later, Tottenham was hosting Fulham.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer