Two first-half goals from captain Ilkay Gundogan gave us a comfortable lead before the German’s late missed penalty offered Leeds and their new Interim boss Sam Allardyce a glimmer of hope.
Spanish forward Rodrigo did pull one back for the visitors but we held on for another crucial three points to take us four points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table.
Guardiola praises skipper Gundogan
With a two-legged Champions League semi-final with Real Madrid, an all-Manchester FA Cup final and four Premier League matches all on the horizon, Brown pointed out that City simply had to get the job done against our relegation threatened opponents.
Speaking on our Matchday Live show, the former City and Leeds midfielder stressed that while the margin in terms of the scoreline was only one goal, the gulf in class on the pitch was much wider.
“You have to have those games to win the Premier League title, right at the end of the season with so much to play for,” he said.
“I think it was a great performance from City. Yes there should have been more goals but the way they controlled it, it was a brilliant performance.
“You expected some fight from Leeds United in the second half and that’s what we got but City should have been out of sight with five or six goals.”
While he scored our goals, Gundogan was the deepest of the conventional midfielders, joined in the centre by full-back Rico Lewis when we had control of the ball.
He was the orchestrator of our performance, completing 171 passes in total – a whopping 69 more than the next most, Aymeric Laporte with 102.
After the game, Brown highlighted the impact of his maturity as well as his passing ability on a City team that are still fighting on three fronts.
“That’s what we want to see,” he said.
“A wonderful performance, intelligent. There was that ball with the outside of his foot to De Bruyne in the first half and he was really good right at the end when the pressure was on, he drove through the middle and he drew the foul.
“Little things like that show his intelligence and his game management. Top performances from senior players is what you need during these tense moments.
“Fatigue can set in, especially mentally, because there’s no let off for the next few weeks and they have already had a month of it.”
Brown was joined on our panel on Saturday by former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson and ex-City defender Keith Curle.
Our Matchday Live show will return at 18:40 on Tuesday night when we’re in the Spanish capital for the first leg of our Champions League semi-final with defending champions Real Madrid.
Paul Dickov, Shaun Goater and Steph Houghton will all be in the studio for that one, while Nedum Onuoha will be providing updates from pitchside at the Bernabeu.
During the game, Alistair Mann and Michael Brown will provide a full radio commentary for free.
