No Haaland, no problem as Grealish finally gets off the mark against limp Leicester 

Grealish has spent much of the season watching from the bench but he was one of six changes Pep Guardiola made following Sunday's FA cup win at Bournemouth and took only 90 seconds of his recall to give City the lead.

This was never likely to be a game where City would miss their injured leading scorer Erllng Haaland and so it proved.

Omar Marmoush added a second after half an hour and the only surprise was that City failed to add to their tally in a game they dominated from start to finish.

The win lifts them above Chelsea back into fourth place - for 24 hours at least - and puts them in good heart for Sunday's Manchester derby at Old Trafford.

But the defeat was the 14th in their last 15 League games for Ruud Van Nistelrooy's team. They haven't scored in the last seven of those games and never looked like it at the Etihad, where they failed to force a save out of City keeper Ederson.

There was a strange and subdued atmosphere at the start of the game with many City fans' boycotting' the opening nine minutes and remaining on the concourses in protest at the signing of the club's ninth deal with third-party ticket agencies, something that supporters fear will force up prices.

They missed something of a collectors' item - a Grealish goal, his first in the Premier League since December 16 2023. Recalled for only his eighth League start of the season, Grealish sent a first-time shot into the corner from Savinho's cut back from the bye line following a surging run by Jeremy Doku, who had won possession on the half-way line.

Guardiola certainly didn't miss it from his seat high up in the main stand where he had been banished following his yellow card at Bournemouth on Sunday which earned him a touchline ban.

For Leicester, Grealish's goal meant an unwanted record - the 25th time in 30 matches they have conceded the first goal, surpassing Ipswich's record of 24 from their first 30 games in the 1994-95 campaign.

They responded quite well - Bilal El Kannouss curling a shot just wide of the far post from 25 yards out - until goalkeeper Mads Hermansen gifted City their second after half an hour.

He got his lines of communication all wrong with Wout Faes and spilled a Ruben Dias cross to leave Marmoush with the simple task of putting the ball into an empty net, via the underside of the bar.

Faes and Hermansen both somewhat atoned for their mix-up to deny City more goals before the break, Faes blocked Marmoush's goal-bound shot with his chest with Hermansen wrong-footed.

And then Hermansen pulled off an instinctive tip over save to keep out Savinho's shot as City finished the first half well on top.

It remained one-way traffic in the second half. Grealish looked to have legitimate appeals for a penalty when he was upended by Luke Thomas as he was about to shoot and then Marmoush ballooned a decent chance high over the bar.

But for all their pressure City failed to add to their tally and Leicester can take some encouragement from that for their remaining games.

Man City (4-2-3-1): Ederson 6; Nunes 7, Dias 7, Gvardiol 7 Reis 90), O'Reilly 7; Gonzalez 7, Gundogan 7 Lewis 90); Savinho 7 (Bobb 85, 6), Grealish 9, Doku 8 (McAtee 78, 6); Marmoush 7. Subs not used: Ortega, Kovacic, De Bruyne, Silva, Foden.

Leicester (3-4-3): Hermansen 6, Faes 6, Coady 6, Thomas 6; Justin 6, Ndidi 6, Soumare 5 (Pereira 75, 5) Kristiansen 5 (Okoli 60,5); Daka 5 (Ayew 80, 5), Vardy 6, El Khanouss 5 (Buonanotte 60, 5) Subs not used: Stolarczyk, Mavididi, De Cordova Reid, Skipp, Coulibaly.

Referee: Darren England 7.