LONDON — Phil Foden spared Manchester City’s blushes after the Premier League title challengers blew a two-goal lead in a dramatic 3-2 victory over Leeds, while Tottenham boss Thomas Frank’s problems mounted in a 2-1 defeat to Fulham yesterday.

Pep Guardiola’s side were in danger of losing more ground in the title race following a second-half collapse at the Etihad Stadium.

Foden and Josko Gvardiol put City two up before the interval, but third-bottom Leeds hit back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha.

Foden clinched a nerve-jangling victory that lifted City into second place, four points behind leaders Arsenal, who travel to third-placed Chelsea on Sunday.

It was a much-needed win after consecutive defeats against Newcastle last weekend and Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.

“It was a relief,” Guardiola said. “The game was not perfect in the first half but it should be over with the chances we had.

“Football is emotions. We conceded the second and after we made a step-up. In the end it’s the quality of Phil.”

City had made their worst start to a campaign for five years and their second-worst under Guardiola.

But they took just 59 seconds to move in front as Foden fired a close-range strike in off the bar.

Leeds had no answer to City’s slick start and Gvardiol looked to have put the hosts in complete control with a tap-in from Nico O’Reilly’s header in the 25th minute.

Calvert-Lewin made an immediate impact after coming off the bench, reducing the deficit with a clinical finish after pouncing on Matheus Nunes’s woeful pass inside the City area in the 49th minute.

Leeds equalised in the 68th minute when Nmecha’s penalty—awarded for Gvardiol’s foul on Calvert-Lewin—was saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma before the forward recovered to score from the rebound.

In stoppage-time, Foden cleverly made room in the area for an ice-cool finish as Guardiola breathed a sigh of relief.