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After the games on Boxing Day, we have reached the halfway mark in the Premier League and Liverpool remain the only unbeaten team in the league with 6 points ahead of 2nd place, Tottenham. Manchester City has suffered a big setback in the title race as the defending champions have lost 3 out of their last 4 games, something which nobody saw coming.
Not just City, but some other big clubs have also recorded shocking defeats at the hands of smaller clubs. And here, we will look at some of them:
1. Manchester City 2 - 3 Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace were struggling in the league with only 4 wins out of 17 matches, before the match against Manchester City. Manchester City had the best goal difference among all the teams in the league and had won with at least 3 goals margin against the bottom half clubs, so far. So, nothing but a win with a big margin was expected. The game started in familiar fashion as Man City opened the scoreline in the 27th minute of the game and were looking to add more goals. But just 6 minutes later, Crystal Palace equalized, out of nowhere, thanks to Jeffrey Schlupp's strike and just 2 minutes after that, Andros Townsend stunned the crowd at Etihad stadium with a thunderbolt volley. Crystal Palace earned a penalty in the second half and captain, Luka Milivojevic, changed the scoreline to 1-3 in their favor. Kevin De Bruyne scored in the 85th minute with a goal which looked like a cross, but couldn't prevent a loss.
2. Tottenham 1 - 3 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Before this game against Wolves, Tottenham were on a winning streak having won their last 6 games on a trot. Their talisman, Harry Kane and forward Son Heung-min, were in terrific goal-scoring form and due to it, the club recently went up to 2nd position in the table. To keep up with the league leaders, Liverpool, a win was much-needed and expected. Harry Kane scored the first goal of the match, with a spectacular 25-yard strike. The score at the half-time was 1-0 in favor of Tottenham and more goals were expected of them, but the opposite happened. Wolves scored 3 goals in the second half, thanks to a flat second-half performance by Tottenham.
3. Chelsea 0-1 Leicester City
Chelsea are often regarded as one of the toughest teams in the league to be beaten at home and had a no-loss record in the season so far. Before the match, the club had lost only once against Tottenham and recently beaten the league leaders, Manchester City. On the other hand, Leicester City almost had an equal win-loss record in the season. Chelsea dominated possession in the first half and were unlucky as a shot from Eden Hazard struck the bar. With a quick counter-attack in the second half, Jamie Vardy scored and stunned Chelsea which turned out to be the match-winning goal.
