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• Manchester City survive scare in battling Premier League comeback win at Luton

  Manchester City survived a scare as they recovered from going a goal behind at half-time to put down a brave fight by Luton and battle to a 2-1 Premier League victory at Kenilworth Road.

  The champions had been without a victory in four games and that run looked like stretching in the most unlikely circumstances when Elijah Adebayo headed in for Rob Edwards’ side on the stroke of the interval.

  City were missing the injured Erling Haaland – with in-form winger Jeremy Doku also ruled out – and looked set to remain seven points off the Premier League summit as Luton bravely held their lead beyond the hour mark.

  Then, Pep Guardiola’s side burst to life to revive their title defence, with two goals in three minutes from Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish turning the game on its head as a famous upset was narrowly bypassed.

  City came at Luton from the off. Inside two minutes, Phil Foden broke into the box down the left and stung the palms of Thomas Kaminski, who beat his effort away well. From the rebound, Silva lashed wide with a hurried miscue when greater composure was required.

  Rodri was next to test Luton’s goalkeeper, drawing a fine one-handed save after unleashing a fierce drive from 20 yards, before the Belgian made his third and finest save of the opening half-hour, diving low to keep out Foden’s bullet effort with a firm wrist.

  City though were getting closer. Julian Alvarez dinked one wide at the near post, getting on the end of Grealish’s intelligent ball into the six-yard box but finding only the side netting.

  But the longer Luton held out, the more frustrated City appeared to become.

  The final 10 minutes of the first half saw Guardiola’s side reduced to speculative efforts from outside the box, either closed down by the hosts’ tireless defence who never let City rest on the ball, or sailing harmlessly behind Kaminski’s goal.

  Then came the moment that stunned the champions. It began in midfield with Ross Barkley, showing sublime strength and skill to hold the ball, spin and release Alfie Doughty racing down the right.

  He moved it on to Andros Townsend, who checked from his right foot to his left, lifted his head and – with a raking cross – found Adebayo rising at the far post between Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias to head Luton into the lead from a yard out.

  The hosets had come within seconds of beating Liverpool and drawing with Arsenal here this season and looked determined to finally earn a win against one of the league’s top sides and to put pressure on 17th-placed Everton in their bid to escape the relegation zone.

  On the hour mark, Dias rattled the crossbar from Nathan Ake’s cut-back in what was the visitors’ first real opening since falling behind.

  Within minutes they were level and it was the architect of Luton’s goal Barkley who was at fault, losing the ball in midfield to Rodri who drove at the heart of the defence.

  He collided with Tom Lockyer who had come across to challenge and as the ball broke loose, it was pounced upon by Silva, barley glancing up at the goal before thumping it impudently first time inside the far post.

  Seconds later it was 2-1 and it was the simplest finish for Grealish. Alvarez’s low cross evaded the desperate lunge of Teden Mengi, arriving at Grealish’s feet six yards out.

  With Luton’s defence breached, he had time to take a touch, decide on his spot and stick the ball calmly between Kaminski’s legs to the relief of visiting supporters behind the goal.

  Luton’s spirit was unbroken and they sought an instant riposte. Barkley ran round Foden and Mateo Kovacic and sent a fizzing right-footed drive inches past the post.

  From that point, City were never comfortable and Luton did not look beaten until the very end, but the champions hung on to end their barren run.

• Fulham put in another five-star display to thump West Ham

  Fulham hit five goals for the second time in a week as they thrashed West Ham at Craven Cottage to move into the top half of the Premier League.

  The floodgates have certainly opened for the Whites in recent weeks, with David Moyes’ men the latest side to be put to the sword as five different scorers struck in a fine 5-0 home win – just four days after Fulham beat Nottingham Forest by the same scoreline.

  Raul Jimenez opened the scoring to take his personal tally to four in five games having previously not scored a Premier League goal since March 2022, when he was a Wolves player.

  Willian and Tosin Adarabioyo goals then had the hosts coasting at the break before a fine effort from substitute Harry Wilson and late effort from Carlos Vinicius added the gloss.

  Jimenez’s upturn in form has dovetailed nicely with Fulham’s as a whole – in their previous three outings heading into this London derby they had scored three to beat Wolves, three in a losing effort at Liverpool and five to down Forest in midweek.

  A rasping free-kick from James Ward-Prowse had Bernd Leno diving across his goal to make an early save, but that would be as good as it got for West Ham.

  It was Fulham who missed the first gilt-edged chance of the afternoon, Jimenez picking out Willian with a perfectly-weighted ball over the top of the West Ham defence only for the forward to shoot tamely at Lukasz Fabianski.

  With the hosts enjoying more of the ball, they took the lead as Jimenez’s fine run of form in front of goal continued as he crashed home a header from Joao Palhinha’s cross to the back post.

  The lead was doubled just after the half-hour as Willian curled home into the far corner after possession had been recycled following Fabianski’s save from an Alex Iwobi strike.

  Bowen passed up a decent opportunity to get West Ham on the board as he shot straight at Leno when picked out in space in front of goal.

  The visitors were struggling at both ends as an Iwobi half-volley deflected off Aaron Cresswell to flash wide of the post only for Adarabioyo to rise high and steer the resulting corner past Fabianski to extend Fulham’s advantage.

  There could have been another before the interval but Fabianksi’s outstretched leg prevented Iwobi’s cross from reaching its target.

  While Willian was forced off injured at half-time, replaced by Wilson, Moyes made two alterations to his West Ham side as he introduced Emerson and Konstantinos Mavropanos.

  Wilson should have scored 10 minutes after the restart as a slick move ended with the midfielder inside the box but unable to guide his effort beyond Fabianski.

  He more than made amends as he hit the fourth goal on the hour, curling a superb 20-yard strike beyond the reach of Fabianski to send Craven Cottage into raptures.

  Moyes made further changes, more likely to rest the weary legs of the likes of Mohammed Kudus and Kurt Zouma, and they did dominate possession in the latter part of the game but still managed to ship another late goal.

  Harrison Reed, whose own goal settled the corresponding fixture in favour of the visitors last season, picked out Wilson with a raking pass forward and the Wales international showed an unselfish touch to square for Vinicius to complete the rout with a tap-in.

• Brendan Rodgers: Celtic too negative in their passing during loss at Kilmarnock

  Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers admitted his side were too negative in their passing in the second half at Rugby Park after Kilmarnock came from behind to win 2-1.

  Matt O’Riley netted from close range to earn Celtic a deserved half-time lead but Killie had missed two excellent chances and they created plenty more opportunities after the interval.

  They were eventually rewarded when Nat Phillips converted Brad Lyons’ cross into his own net in the 75th minute and the home side took further confidence before Matty Kennedy finished off a counter-attack with three minutes left.

  Rodgers said: “I thought in the first half we were very good. We played at a good speed and created opportunities. We could have maybe have been more than 1-0 up by half-time.

  “But in the second half we never got started. You expect a wee bit of pressure for 10 or 15 minutes, which we weathered at set-pieces and corners. But we never passed the ball.

  “We were under a bit more pressure, sure, but you have to be resistant to that pressure. We weren’t able to make passes to take us up the pitch and that was the biggest disappointment of the second half. We couldn’t sustain any attacking threat in the game.

  “When you play Kilmarnock it’s quite a direct game so you have to be able to win the first, second and third balls. But we didn’t do that.”

  Rodgers was angrier than he had ever been as a manager when his side trailed against St Johnstone at half-time seven days earlier before coming back to win. But he was more measured in his response after a first cinch Premiership defeat of the season.

  “The players know themselves,” Rodgers said. “We spoke after the game about how this isn’t how we want to do.

  “In the second half we played their game instead of playing our game. I thought we got rid of the ball in the second half instead of passing it. And there is a big difference.

  “We ended up being too negative in our passing. If you play a team that’s pressing and right up against you there, you’ve got to pass the ball forward. Because that forward pass eliminates pressure. And we weren’t able, for some reason, to do that.”

  Rodgers has now lost 10 domestic games over two spells as Celtic manager and four of them have been at Rugby Park.

  “I thought the pitch was all right for an AstroTurf surface,” he said. “When you get rain, it makes it slick, and it was actually good, but in the British game you have to have that adaptability.”

  Killie manager Derek McInnes had harsh words for his players at half-time in a bid to get them to the levels they showed when beating Celtic in the Viaplay Cup in August.

  “I had to give the players a wee reminder of the team that we need to be, particularly at Rugby Park, the team we needed to be against Celtic,” he said.

  “Celtic came and dominated the ball and dictated the play. They were almost playing with us really, with the ball. They were just kind of coaxing us into mistakes.

  “Even when we got the ball we looked unsure of ourselves.

  “We had to be braver, we had to take a step forward and I thought Stuart Findlay was immense at the back. We had to defend a lot of space behind us and with that comes that element of risk.

  “We had big performances second half when it was the total reverse of the first. It was everything I wanted from my team.

  “I thought we passed up too many opportunities before we did score and thankfully when we did get the goal you could just sniff the victory, you could feel it. More importantly my players felt it and thankfully we got the second goal that I felt we deserved.

  “I’m delighted we managed to turn it round because coming from behind is always difficult when you play against a team like Celtic.”