Jack Grealish scored his first Premier League goal since December 2023 as Manchester City moved into the top four with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Leicester City.

Pep Guardiola's team will be without Erling Haaland for up to seven weeks due to an ankle injury, but the Norwegian's absence proved a minor inconvenience on Wednesday.

Grealish's first league goal in almost 16 months – since a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on December 16, 2023 – put City ahead before two minutes had passed.

Following Jeremy Doku's driving run through the centre, Savinho's intelligent cutback found Grealish and he side-footed home with confidence.

Bilal El Khannouss curled just wide to cap a rare Leicester attack, the first of just two shots the Foxes attempted in the game, but City went 2-0 up in the 29th minute. 

Mads Hermansen dropped Ruben Dias' chipped pass under pressure from his own team-mate Wout Faes, and the grateful Omar Marmoush rifled off the woodwork and in.

Savinho was denied by Hermansen shortly afterwards and a strong block from Faes kept Nico O'Reilly – on his first Premier League start – off the scoresheet in the second half.

But City were largely content to play in front of a beaten Leicester team, as they moved two points above Chelsea, ahead of the Blues facing Tottenham on Thursday. 

Leicester remain 19th, 12 points adrift of 17th-placed Wolves with just eight games remaining.

Data debrief: Toothless Foxes lose seventh straight

Leicester are sinking without trace, losing 14 of their last 15 Premier League matches, including each of their last seven.

All of the defeats in that latter run have come to nil, with only Crystal Palace in 2017 ever losing eight straight Premier League matches without scoring on each occasion.

While the Eagles recovered to avoid relegation that season, there is little to no hope of the Foxes emulating that feat.

City, meanwhile, saw Marmoush step up in the absence of Haaland, netting his fifth goal in eight Premier League appearances. All of those strikes have come at the Etihad Stadium.

Paulo Wanchope (first six), Raheem Sterling (nine) and Phil Foden (five) are the only other players to score their first five Premier League goals for City all at home.