Man City vs Luton Town final score, result, highlights, stats, lineups as five-star Premier League champions go top

Dom Farrell

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Man City vs Luton Town final score, result, highlights, stats, lineups as five-star Premier League champions go top image

ETIHAD STADIUM, MANCHESTER — Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League and feathered their goal difference into the bargain with a 5-1 win over Luton Town.

Title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool do not play until Sunday and City took the opportunity to apply some pressure with a dominant display, ticking two ahead of Liverpool’s goal difference tally into the bargain.

Daiki Hashioka’s unfortunate and painful own goal from Erling Haaland’s wayward second-minute volley amounted to a nightmare start for Luton, who are a point from safety after Nottingham Forest’s draw with Wolves. Their goal difference has also taken an untimely hit.

Man City vs Luton final score

  FT Goalscorers
Man City 5 Hashioka (OG) 2', Kovacic 63', Haaland (p) 76', Doku 87', Gvardiol 90+4'
Luton 1 Barkley 81'

Lineups:

Man City (4-1-4-1, right to left): 31. Ederson (GK) — 82. Rico Lewis, 25. Manuel Akanji, 3. Rubem Dias, 24. Josko Gvardiol — 8. Mateo Kovacic — 27. Matheus Nunes, 17. Kevin De Bruyne, 19. Julian Alvarez, 11. Jeremy Doku — 9. Erling Haaland.

Luton (4-3-3 right to left): 24. Thomas Kaminski (GK) — 32. Fred Onyedinma, 27. Daiki Hashioka, 16. Reece Burke, 45. Alfie Doughty — 6. Ross Barkley, 18. Jordan Clark, 8. Luke Berry — 30. Andros Townsend (10. Cauley Woodrow), 14. Taith Chong, 9. Carlton Morris.

MORE: Real Madrid vs Man City final score, result, stats as Champions League classic thrills Santiago Bernabeu

Rob Edwards’ side escaped from the first half without suffering any further damage, despite City recording 18 shots to their zero and hogging 76% possession.

Such toil without the ball tends to catch up with teams and it duly did as Luton shipped four goals inside the final half-hour. The first was a beauty as Mateo Kovacic dispatched a bouncing ball from Julian Alvarez’s clever corner into the roof of the net from 18 yards.

Jeremy Doku gave makeshift full-back Fred Onyedinma a torrid afternoon and drew a foul that allowed Haaland to send Thomas Kaminski the wrong way and quell another outing of hit-and-miss.

Matheus Nunes was careless after taking a pass from Ederson, allowing Ross Barkley to reduce the arrears. That could have prompted an uncomfortable ending for City but, even after Guardiola withdrew Haaland and the excellent Kevin De Bruyne, they found extra gears.

Doku brought up his first Premier League goal since November 4 with a wonderful solo effort and Josko Gvardiol followed a stunning strike at Real Madrid in midweek with another right-footed effort arrowed into the top corner from range. The champions appear to be on the march.

MORE: Where to watch Man City vs Luton live stream, TV channel, lineups, prediction for Premier League match

Man City vs Luton analysis

Haaland hit and miss but goals flow for Man City

“There’s one of our few remaining defenders knocked out on the floor and we’re 1-0 down, what a start that is,” Luton boss Edwards said with a rueful chuckle afterwards. Hashioka being laid out after diverting Haaland’s wild volley into the net usefully highlighted that, even when he's a bit out of kilter, the powerhouse striker is an ever-present danger for opponents. That fortuitous opener came after Haaland botched a one-on-one opportunity and he’ll have been particularly disappointed with one far-post finish from a trademark De Bruyne cross.

Haaland is a 23-year-old player in a trough of form. It happens. But there were also good moments, with one lay-off to craft an opening for Julian Alvarez at least a few rungs up the ladder from League Two. His insatiable appetite for goals means Alvarez’s conversation with Haaland over who might take the penalty was a short one. He assuredly dispatched the kick. Goal 31 of a bang-average season for the man on course to retain his Premier League Golden Boot. It’s alright for some.

Matheus Nunes: The Portuguese Kalvin Phillips?

Okay, that’s a bit provocative. But as England midfielder Phillips tries in vain to pick up the pieces from his City misadventure on loan at West Ham, it feels like another man with plenty of international recognition needs to, as Guardiola would say, make a step forward. Nunes arrived from Wolves for £53m in August, less than Jude Bellingham or Declan Rice would have cost City but still a significant outlay. It’s safe to say that if either of those primary targets had arrived at the Etihad Stadium, they’d have made more than Nunes’ six Premier League starts.

That also means he’s been more trusted than Phillips ever was by Guardiola, but the parallels are there when it comes to trying to work out where Nunes fits in long term. The former Sporting CP man is an elegant, technically sound midfielder, who carries the ball excellently. But City have De Bruyne and Phil Foden to do that. Jack Grealish isn’t bad at it either. 

Nunes also makes intelligent, penetrating runs — something that was in evidence as he was able to unpick a very deep Luton defence on a few occasions. However, his end product is a worry. He remains without a goal for one of the most potent attacking forces in European football and spurned three good openings today. One was tamely hit at Kaminski, another flashed wide and the third embarrassingly ended up with Nunes flat on his face. It already felt like a case of more work to be done before the 25-year-old’s error led to Barkley’s goal. Doku and Gvardiol getting in on the act meant all of City’s major summer signings ended the games with a goal apart from Nunes. 

He will hope for another chance with Guardiola expected to rotate for next weekend’s FA Cup semifinal against Chelsea. As City continue to be linked to a close-season move for West Ham star Lucas Paqueta, it's one Nunes would be advised to take.

Man City vs Luton stats

Man City Stat Luton
37 Shots 4
13 Shots on target 2
74% Possession 26%
763 Passes 276
7 Fouls 6
12 Corners 1
1 Yellow cards 0
0 Red cards 0

Man City vs Luton live updates, highlights, and commentary

Fulltime: City are back to the top of the table and have nudged a couple ahead of Liverpool on goal difference too. In this title race of fine margins, that's not to be sniffed at. Six changes from midweek, no new injuries and on to Madrid. Guardiola and his players have scored 16 times in their past four matches. They love this time of the season, don't they? Thanks for joining us.

90th minute+4: GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Josko Gvardiol!!!!

What have you done to better yourself this week? Well, Josko Gvardiol weirdly appears to have become right footed. After his stunning goal at the Santiago Bernabeu, he bangs another into the top corner from outside the box. Woof!

90th minute+2: Huge scramble in the Luton box! Gorgeous feet by the substitute Bobb, Kaminski with a fabulous save to deny Alvarez, Kovacic with a shot blocked.

87th minute: GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Jeremy Doku!!!!

There's one to bring the house down from the Belgium winger. Again he twists poor Onyedinma this way and that before slotting a finish through Hashioka's legs and into the bottom corner. That's his first Premier League goal since November.

84th minute: Doku with a little dart inside to open up the shot. Fired comfortably over.

81st minute: GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Ross Barkley!!!!

It's been a sloppy few minutes for City and Luton have their goal. Sloppy stuff from Nunes, who coughed uyp Ederson's pass, Barkley was alive to the possibilities and steered into the corner. Guardiola has just taken De Bruyne and Haaland off too, so that's not brilliant timing.

80th minute: Chance for Luton! Lovely backheel from Woodrow on the end of a quickly taken throw. Doughty is onto it and Ederson saves with his boot.

76th minute: GOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Erling Haaland (pen)!!!!

Haaland gets his goal, sending Kaminski the wrong way. City are going back to the top of the table.

75th minute: Penalty to City! This one has kind of been in the post. Doku hops past Onyedinma, who sends him tumbling. Haaland to take.

72nd minute: Through ball from Nunes for Haaland to chase but there's a bit to much on it, Hashioka gets in the way and Kaminski collects.

70th minute: De Bruyne looks for Haaland but Doughty does wonderfully well and darts away with the ball.

66th minute: Luton hit the crossbar! Onyedinma gets to the byline inside the City box and substitute Woodrow clatters one against the top of Ederson's furniture.

63rd minute: GGGOOOOAAAALLLLL!!!!! Mateo Kovacic!!!!

Oof, that's a bit of alright. Alvarez skims the corner out to the edge of the box, where Kovacic is unmarked and fizzes a bouncing ball into the roof of the net from 18 yards.

62nd minute: Pass, pass, pass again. I can't remember the last time Luton had the ball. They must be shattered. Kovacic's shot is deflected behind. We're checking for a handball and a possible penalty. Play on!

60th minute: More City possession, then they quicken the pace with Akanji into Haaland. He lays off to Alvarez, who shanks off target.

58th minute: Doku jinks into the box, Alvarez and then Kovacic can't get a shot off and it's laid back to Dias. The centre-back's left-footed effort completely wrong-foots Kaminski but goes just wide.

57th minute: Alvarez finds himself deeper than De Bruyne and Nunes in this attack, which isn't a situation he'd choose but he does well, knitting things together before De Bruyne slides a shot into Kaminski's gloves.

54th minute: Alvarez scuffs one wide left-footed. A bit of a quieter period for Luton. If they can keep this at 1-0 for a another quarter of an hour they might fancy City getting nervy.

47th minute: Oh, Matheus Nunes. Good grief. Ederson pings a lovely, flat ball beyond the Luton defence and Nunes has made an intelligent run to get there. Then he falls over, pretty much flat on his face.

46th minute: We're back underway. No changes for either side but Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva are warming up to generous applause.

Halftime: City have had 18 shots, 10 corners and 76% of possession. All things considered, Luton must be very happy with 1-0. See you back here shortly.

45th minute+1: Two minutes of stoppage time begin with Kovacic whipping one over from outside the box.

45th minute: Doku to De Bruyne, edge of the box. Fabulous save by Kaminski.

43rd minute: Foul by De Bruyne on Doughty as Luton try to break and he's pretty fairly into the book.

41st minute: The game is being played almost entirely inside Luton's third. City fashion some room, Alvarez's low cross hits one sliding defender and cannons off  another for a corner. It comes to nought but the attack vs. defence exercise continues.

40th minute: Another City corner. Alvarez takes it deep, De Bruyne's shot is blocked. Dias goes down but those are heavily strangled penalty shouts.

35th minute: Nunes does well to keep a City attack alive when Dias chips over the Luton defence. Townsend is alert to head behind. Alvarez has a shot from this corner. It goes over. Guardiola is as impressed as you'd expect.

33rd minute: Some nice possession for the visitors ends as Onyedinma doesn't get back from an offside position.

31st minute: Luton clear a couple of City corners behind. Hashioka had a good couple of handfuls of Haaland's shirt there and gets a "careful, now" from the ref. The next one is half-cleared, Kovacic and Nunes get in one another's way. Another corner and now Luton clear their lines.

28th minute: Again Nunes has to do better. Lewis ducks into midfield from right-back, Nunes charges into space down the right channel to snaffle a De Bruyne pass but arrows his shot wide across the face of goal.

25th minute: Doku skips past Onyedinma to have a shot blocked. Then Burke hurls himself bravely in front of a Haaland shot and doesn't even suffer a head injury. Now Dias with a daisy cutter that Kaminski holds.

22nd minute: Luton over-complicate things in their own third, De Bruyne pinches the ball. He doesn't really get hold of his shot and that's straightforward for Kaminski.

20th minute: De Bruyne again, a dead ball this time. Gvardiol peels away and should do better with his back post header.

18th minute: De Bruyne curls one of those balls to the back post where a sliding Haaland can't get his connection right. City's No. 9 very much in the mood but it's just not happening for him at the moment.

15th minute: As in the FA Cup game, Luton are giving De Bruyne far too much room to run. He slots a pass to Alvarez down the right channel but the Argentina forward makes a pig's ear of his opportunity. Now De Bruyne finds Haaland in the area buit he's dispossessed.

14th minute: Ohh, that maybe should have been a first City goal for Nunes. The hosts work the ball patiently before switch in play to Doku on the left. He cuts it back and the Portugal international is in space. It's on his weaker foot, though and Kaminski makes a fairly routine save.

12th minute: De Bruyne goes down under a challenge from Berry. He wants a penalty but a very swift VAR  check clears that one up.

9th minute: Gvardiol, who scored an absolute screamer with his weaker right foot against Real Madrid in midweek chances his arm again and Kaminski does well to turn behind. From the corner, De Bruyne blasts mikes over under pressure.

4th minute: Hashioka needed some treatment after being hit by Thor's thunderbolt just then but he's going to try to continue.

2nd minute: GOOOOAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Daiki Hashioka (OG)!!!!!!!

City's matchday announcer is giving that to Haaland, but do me a favour! The City striker was played clean through, cut onto his right foot and was denied by Kaminski. Doku tried his luck from the loose ball, it spun back up towards Haaland, whose wild volley was probably heading for a throw until it sconed Hashioka and flew in.

1st minute: And we're off.

1 mins before kickoff: This game is City’s annual City In The Community match, where the club celebrates its affiliated charity. However, two independent supporter groups are also drawing attention to the incredible grassroots work done by City fans to help some of Manchester’s most vulnerable. MCFC Fans Foodbank Support has been collecting at Manchester City men’s and women’s home matches since 2020 and is now the largest contributor to Manchester Central Football. Today is “Foodbank Awareness Day” in the UK and the MCFC Fans Foodbank Support has teamed up with the 1894 Group —who are responsible matchday displays and tifos at the Etihad — to hang a special banner in the ground to highlight their incredible work. Both groups have recently put pressure on City to review their controversial decision to increase season ticket prices once again.

4 mins before kickoff: Here come the teams. The usual warm Etihad reception for the Premier League anthem coming up...

20 mins before kickoff: On the other end of the spectrum to relegating City in 1983, Luton also have some painful memories attached to this part of the world. Check out the tweet below to have a look at their previous visit to this ground. Safe to say a lot has happened since...

40 mins before kickoff: A couple of observations around that Manchester City lineup. The printed team sheets we were handed in the stadium had Kevin De Bruyne among both the starting XI and the substitutes. Calm down, Pep Guardiola hasn't responded to the Belgian's midweek illness by having him cloned. But Phil Foden, who was rumoured to start but is on the bench, wasn't on the initial list at all. As someone familiar with copy mistakes (quiet, at the back) that suggests Foden was indeed set to start, with De Bruyne on the bench before they were switched.

Elsewhere, Kyle Walker has made an ahead-of-schedule return to the bench, where there is no place for John Stones, who played through some pain during the second half in Madrid and is not fully fit. That's a worry for Guardiola going into Wednesday because the ball-playing England defender was vital to City's second-half turnaround at the Santiago Bernabeu.

55 mins before kickoff: Injuries mean it looks like Luton will abandon their usual 3-4-3 formation for a back four. Ex-Manchester United youngster Teden Mengi hasn't made it.

1 hour before kickoff: Here's the City team. Starts for De Bruyne and Haaland, along with Rodri's requested rest.

1 hr 20 mins before kickoff: Confirmed team news will be along in 20 minutes and it will be intriguing to see how much Pep Guardiola juggles his starting XI. There isn't just the Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Real Madrid to factor into his calculations. Seven says from now, City face Chelsea in an FA Cup semifinal. If Guardiola names a pretty strong side today, expect a heavily rotated team at Wembley as he juggles resources across three competitions.

For Luton boss Rob Edwards, it's almost a case of "any warm body". His benches have been stacked with teenagers in recent weeks and the raft of first-team absentees is compounded by on-loan defender Issa Kabore being ineligible to face his parent club. 

1 hr 40 mins before kickoff: This is the third meeting between City and Luton this season, with Guardiola’s men having come from behind to win 2-1 at Kenilworth Road in December before hammering the Hatters 6-2 in the FA Cup. Just the five Erling Haaland goals and four Kevin De Bruyne assists in that one. However, for City fans of a certain vintage, Luton Town (H) on the fixture list is accompanied by a particular sense of dread.

On the final day of the 1982/83 season, Luton won 1-0 at Maine Road thanks to Radomir Antic’s 86th-minute winner, leapfrogging City in the table to save themselves and condemn their opponents to relegation. City's official website ran a feature about that game this week entitled "The Day the Sky Fell Down". More than four decades on, could another Luton heist in Manchester ruin City’s end to the season?

2 hours before kickoff: Hello and welcome to The Sporting News' live coverage of Manchester City vs. Luton Town in the Premier League, a game that could have huge ramifications at both ends of the table as third top play third bottom. City will move to the summit with a win, while Luton will move out of the bottom three if they better Nottingham Forest's result at Wolves.

Man City vs Luton kick off time

This Premier League clash takes place at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, UK and kicks off on Saturday, April 13 at 3:00 p.m. local time.

Here's how that time translates across some of the major territories:

  Date Kickoff time
USA Sat, Apr. 13 10:00 a.m. ET
Canada Sat, Apr. 13 10:00 a.m. ET
UK Sat, Apr. 13 3:00 p.m. GMT
Australia Sun, Apr. 14 12:00 a.m. AEST
India Sat, Apr. 13 7:30 p.m. IST

Man City vs Luton lineups, team news

With the return leg against Real Madrid on the horizon in midweek, Guardiola made six changes as he looks to keep his squad fresh. John Stones joins Nathan Ake on the sidelines with Rodri rested on the bench, where there is an ahead-of-schedule return for Kyle Walker. Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne each start having claimed five goals and four assists respectively when City beat Luton 6-2 in the FA Cup.

Man City (4-1-4-1, right to left): Ortega (GK) — Lewis, Akanji, Dias, Gvardiol — Kovavic — Nunes, De Bruyne, Alvarez, Doku — Haaland.

Man City subs (9): Ortega (GK), Walker, Ake, Grealish, Rodri, Silva, Gomez, Foden, Bobb

Luton boss Rob Edwards is missing a host of players for the season run-in with the Hatters still inside the relegation zone. Five first-team players are out for the remainder of the campaign and Issa Kabore is ineligible to face his parent club.

Luton (4-5-1 right to left): Kaminski (GK) — Hashioka, Mengi, Burke, Doughty — Townsend, Clark, Barkley, Ruddock, Berry — Morris.

Luton subs (9): Shea (GK), Krul (GK), Woodrow, Mpanzu, Johnson, Harris, Chigozie, Nelson, Piesold.

Man City vs Luton live stream, TV channel

Here's how to watch this Premier League match across selected areas of the world's major regions:

Region TV Streaming
USA — Peacock
Canada —

Fubo Canada
UK — —
Australia — Optus Sport
India — JioTV, Hotstar

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USA: This game is available on the Peacock Network.

Canada: Every Premier League game this season is live-streaming exclusively via Fubo.

Australia: Fans in Australia can stream every match live and on-demand on Optus Sport.

UK: This game is not available for live broadcast or streaming due to the Saturday 3 p.m. embargo.

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Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.