It wasn’t without the kind of mistakes that have become the norm of late, but Pep Guardiola finally restarted his Manchester City winning machine in his 500th^Th Game responsible. “City is back,” shouted the away players at the final whistle. Erling Haaland secured the win with a header that was sent into the goal with a clever move by substitute James McAtee. City switched gears they have struggled to find in recent weeks, moving the ball from right to left and Haaland, playing alongside Conor Coady, coming into play unchallenged from a cross from Savinho.

Savinho got City going and enjoyed the rebound of a rebounding shot from Phil Foden that was parried by Leicester goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk, but City’s second win in 14 games and second goal conceded in as many games was anything but routine. Still, a year that began with a 32-game unbeaten run en route to a fourth Premier League title ended in familiar fashion.

City led from the 21st^st minute, but there was no consolation until Haaland’s header in the 74th minute. The presence of Jamie Vardy proved worrying, the striker, who turns 38 in two weeks, returning to the starting XI to lead Leicester’s attack and keeping Nathan Aké on his toes. Vardy hit the visitors’ crossbar and ended up in the net after lifting a shot over the goal from a superb cross from Stephy Mavididi. Vardy weaved between Aké, who was replaced by Kyle Walker midway through the second half, and Manuel Akanji but could not get his shot on target. Vardy was the catalyst for the move that led Akanji to stop James Justin from hooking the ball safely just minutes earlier.

Ruud van Nistelrooy is given a lot of courage. Bilal El Khannouss’ feather-light cross from the right just after the half-hour was the perfect example of how close Leicester came to equalizing on several occasions. El Khannouss’ inviting ball eluded Justin, Vardy, who appeared to intentionally leave it lying there, and Facundo Buonanotte, who banged his forehead against the back post in frustration. Buonanotte became familiar with the woodwork and sent a header against the same post eight minutes later after Josko Gvardiol and Savinho failed to clear the rest of El Khannouss’ cross from the left.

City offered Leicester encouragement and opportunity. City’s first scare was averted when, after playing Buonanotte’s through ball in the left channel, Vardy was found offside after Stefan Ortega tackled him to the ground in the penalty area.

Gvardiol then deflected a header back to his goalkeeper, allowing Vardy to intervene and trouble Ortega, who raced towards his near post to parry it. It was obvious that City had lost the aura that had been missing for some time. Kevin De Bruyne, back in the starting line-up in place of Jérémy Doku and representing Guardiola’s only change from the draw against Everton, routinely blocked the ball at the front post after a corner from El Khannouss.

For City, a welcome buffer would have arrived 10 minutes before half-time if Haaland, after storming past Jannik Vestergaard and evading Boubakary Soumaré, had sent his shot to the other side of the post after City shot forward after Mateo Kovacic El Khannouss had stolen halfway. De Bruyne shot over early on, but Haaland had City’s first significant chance when Stolarczyk saved his first shot with his left boot after De Bruyne’s cutback.

Stolarczyk, who kept his place in goal after his first top-flight game against Leicester, should have done better but had no chance with City’s second goal. Haaland, who had a single touch of the ball in the opponent’s penalty area against Aston Villa eight days ago, made Leicester pay.