Late Jesus goal saves City
Gabriel Jesus scored twice, including a 92nd-minute winner, as Manchester City climbed to third in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory over a dogged Swansea City on Sunday.
In the late game, Manchester United beat champions Leicester 3-0 with two goals in two minutes late in the first half from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Juan Mata got the third four minutes into the second half to put United on 45 points, one spot behind fifthplace Liverpool.
At the Etihad Stadium Jesus poked home to break Swansea hearts in the dying seconds in what was another eye-catching performance from the supremely talented Brazilian.
It looked like City would be left to rue a host of missed chances when Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised in the 81st minute after Jesus had earlier opened the scoring in the 11th.
City are one point adrift of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur while Swansea remained 17th, one point above Hull City in the relegation zone.
“I am very happy to score two goals,” Jesus told Sky Sports with teammate Fernandinho acting as translator.
“I got into the team so quickly. Everyone at the club is helping me to get better every day but, of course, when things like this happen it is much easier.”
Swansea had been rejuvenated under new manager Paul Clement, having won three of their previous four league games to climb out of the bottom three, but it was always going to be difficult against their freeflowing hosts.
City had already created a flurry of chances in a dominant opening before Jesus reacted quickest to poke home a teasing David Silva cross.
City threatened to cut loose thereafter with their fluid, dynamic attacking quintet of Jesus, Silva, Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and Kevin De Bruyne picking their way through Swansea’s defence with alarming ease.
For all their dominance — which yielded 74% possession at the break — City were wasteful and failed to capitalise on a plethora of chances with Swansea making it to half-time without conceding a second.
Swansea made a lively start to the second period with City goalkeeper Willy Caballero palming Sigurdsson’s free kick onto the post. Sigurdsson appeared to have snatched the draw with his low strike before Jesus’ late intervention.
City had been lethargic for much of the second period but Jesus finished at the second opportunity after his initial header was saved by Lukasz Fabianski to grab all three points./