Manchester City v Leeds United: Jamie Redknapp sees positives for Sam Allardyce's side despite defeat

Defeat plunged the Whites further into a relegation battle, with both Nottingham Forest and Everton now able to leapfrog Sam Allardyce’s men if they each win their game in hand. However, former Liverpool midfielder and current Sky Sports pundit Redknapp identified positives for Leeds to take away from the Etihad Stadium.

Analysing the game on Sky Sports, he said: "They’ve been beaten heavily a lot lately and that couldn’t happen. Once they went 2-0 down, they had a lot of chances, Man City, to make it three, four.

"When the penalty happened, you thought ‘this all could change very quickly’. They’ll take a lot from this. There was some spirit there. They showed something."

He also reserved praise for Joel Robles, who was called upon to replace the out-of-form Illan Meslier between the sticks. The experienced Spaniard coped well under intense pressure from the dominant hosts, vindicating Allardyce’s bold decision to make a change in goal.

Redknapp said: “The ‘keeper, he made a big decision leaving out Meslier, the ‘keeper came in, Robles, and did well. They’ll look at that now as something to go on for the away games that they have and also the home games. Rodrigo coming on, a good substitution, scored a goal, that’ll give him a bit of confidence.”

Leeds have just three games remaining in the Premier League and return to action next Saturday (May 13) against Newcastle United.