Tottenham Hotspur kept the pressure on Leicester City and Arsenal with a 2-1 win away at the Etihad. The result sees Spurs leapfrog their north London rivals to move into second place on goal difference. Meanwhile, Liverpool handed Aston Villa a 6-0 defeat to move up to eighth. Earlier in the day, Arsenal beat Leicester City 2-1 to narrow the gap at the top.
Manchester City 1-2 Tottenham Hotspur
The first half of the other top four clash of the day did not see much action as opposed to the other games on Sunday. Neither of the two sides had chances to score with both Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane leading the lines for the respective teams but starved of service.
Manchester City were guilty of doing little with the possession they had but looked solid at the back with Vincent Kompany back in the lineup. On the other hand, Spurs players were putting in a shift, especially Eric Dier, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen covering a lot of ground in the first 45 minutes.
It wasn’t until the second half when the game exploded into life after City conceded a debatable penalty in the 52nd minute. A cross from Danny Rose was blocked by Raheem Sterling but referee Mark Clattenburg deemed it a handball. Sterling was in the air with his back turned to Rose and replays showed it had hit his elbow. Harry Kane stepped up and beat Joe Hart to make it 1-0.
Only minutes later, Yaya Toure stepped up to take a free-kick and managed to beat Hugo Lloris, only for the ball to clang on to the crossbar. Manuel Pellegrini then brought on Kelechi Iheanacho in search of an equaliser and he made an impact minutes later.
A one-two between Gael Clichy and David Silva saw the Spanish midfielder release the full-back and Clichy’s cross into the box found Iheanacho unmarked and he took a well-timed shot to beat Lloris and make it 1-1.
Christian Eriksen then made his birthday all the more special with Spurs’ second goal. Substitute Erik Lamela had only just come on two minutes earlier and a through ball found the Danish midfielder who had bisected the two centre-backs and beat Hart to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
The final minutes were frantic for both sides as City pressed for an equaliser and a point but couldn’t make their chances count. The result leaves Pellegrini’s side in fourth place – four points behind Spurs and Arsenal.
Aston Villa 0-6 Liverpool
Liverpool moved up to eighth in the Premier League table with a 6-0 win over Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday. It was also a game where Liverpool had six different goal scorers in an EPL game for the first time ever. The result sees Villa stranded at the bottom of the table with just 16 points from 26 games – eight points deep in the relegation zone – and with the worst goal difference in the league (-26).
Daniel Sturridge made his first start for the Reds since the 1-1 Merseyside derby draw in October last year. And the English striker made it count by opening the scoring as early as the 16th minute with a header across the face of goal after Philippe Coutinho sent in a cross. Nine minutes later, James Milner found the bottom corner with a free-kick from the left which beat everybody to make it 2-0.
Although the home side kept Jurgen Klopp’s men at bay for the rest of the half, Villa goalkeeper Mark Bunn’s evening only got worse after the restart. Emre Can made it 3-0 with a side-footed finish from outside the box to beat Bunn and find the left bottom corner before Divock Origi effectively put the game out of reach in the 65th minute with a goal on the counter-attack.
By the time Nathaniel Clyne scored the fifth only two minutes later in a six-yard box scramble, a number of home fans were already heading for the exits. An unmarked Kolo Toure then made it 6-0 in the 71st minute with an easy header from a Jordan Henderson corner-kick to sum up Villa’s dire performance.
This is the first time Villa have conceded six goals on home turf in the Premier League era and the for the first time in more than 23 years.
