Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City
Manuel Pellegrini’s hopes of moving up the table suffered a big blow when Manchester City travelled to Anfield just three days after beating the Merseyside club in the Capital One Cup final. A 3-0 loss sees City struggling to catch up with the league leaders while they keep one eye behind them with derby rivals Manchester United on the ascendency.
Liverpool opened the scoring through Adam Lallana with what at first looked like a poor decision to shoot from so far out. But the low shot soon found itself in the back of the net with Joe Hart slow to react.
James Milner then made it 2-0 before half-time after he scored with a well-taken goal. After collecting a pass from the right, his first touch took the ball into the box before he evaded a tackle to toe-poke the ball past Hart with his left foot to score against his former club.
Liverpool sealed all three points when Lallana managed to carve open the City defence in the second half and play a final pass to Roberto Firmino who managed to stay onside. The Brazilian took a composed shot with only Hart to beat and curled it past the goalkeeper to make it 3-0. The result sees Liverpool move up to eighth spot with City still in fourth with a game in hand.
Arsenal 1-2 Swansea City
The Gunners made a few changes to their starting lineup with Joel Campbell replacing Theo Walcott and Per Mertesacker coming in for the injured Laurent Koscielny. Swansea had the third best record at the Emirates since they were promoted to the Premier League and they troubled Arsenal in the game.
It was the home side who took the lead with a sublime strike from Joel Campbell. A lob over the defence was met by the Costa Rican forward who made a run into the box and his slide followed by a shot caught Lukasz Fabianski off guard and he scored with the ball finding the far corner of the net.
However, the Swans equalised against the run of play when a counter-attack saw Wayne Routledge get in behind Per Mertesacker and get on the end of a Jack Cork pass to beat Petr Cech to make it 1-1. Arsenal’s misery was compounded in the second half when the visitors took the lead through a set-piece. A cross whipped into the six-yard box saw Cech struggle to parry it away and Ashley Williams managed to bundle it in.
As much as the Gunners tried to grab an equaliser, they simply couldn’t find a way past the Swans defence and Fabianski as the Welsh side went home with three crucial points to move away from the relegation zone. It was the Swans’ third win in five visits to the Emirates.
The result also left Arsenal hanging in third place with their only solace being second-placed Tottenham Hotspur losing 1-0 to West Ham to set up a tasty north London Derby this weekend.
To make matters worse, Petr Cech also suffered an injury at the end of the game. “Cech got a muscular problem at the end of the game,” Wenger said. “He will not play on Saturday. I have full faith in Ospina.”
Manchester United 1-0 Watford
The game at Old Trafford was one with very few chances in spite of there being a lot of action inside the box. It was the visitors who threatened to score on many occasions with Odion Ighalo and Sebastian Prodl going close. Ighalo himself had a couple of good chances to score but failed to find the target whenever he had shots on goal.
The second half saw Anthony Martial deployed as a striker and new sensation Marcus Rashford moved to the wing in a bid to get the opening goal. Rashford fared well on the right flank, taking on Jose Holebas many times and putting in some good crosses.
But just when it looked like Watford would come away with a point, they shot themselves in the foot when Miguel Britos fouled Martial outside the box late in the game. United’s captain for the night Juan Mata stepped up and curled a free-kick past Heurelho Gomes to give United the lead and, in the end, three points.
Other EPL scores
West Ham 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur (Michail Antonio)
Stoke City 1-0 Newcastle United (Xherdan Shaqiri)
