MANCHESTER, England — Runaway Premier League leader Manchester City took a step closer to a fourth title in five seasons with a 1-0 win over second-placed Chelsea on Saturday, opening up a 13-point lead over the London club at the top.
Philippe Coutinho enjoyed a dream debut for Aston Villa as he came off the bench to inspire a 2-2 comeback draw at home to Manchester United, scoring a late equalizer.
Rafa Benitez’s troubles at Everton continued as they suffered a 2-1 loss at Norwich City, who moved off the bottom of the table with their third win of the campaign.
Newcastle United conceded a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw at home to Watford, missing the chance to escape the drop zone.
City’s 12th win in a row, thanks to a 70th minute solo strike from Kevin De Bruyne, continues their charge towards a successful defense of their title but manager Pep Guardiola was quick to dismiss such talk.
Third-placed Liverpool is 14 points behind City but has two games in hand, including Sunday’s visit of Brentford.
“(The players) are going to listen to me that it is not true when people say it is over. In January, it is impossible it is over,” Guardiola said.
DE BRUYNE WINNER
After a first half which saw few clear chances, other than Jack Grealish being foiled by Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, Chelsea had an opportunity to take the lead after the break but Romelu Lukaku’s shot was well saved by Ederson.
City was well in control of the game for large spells and took the points after De Bruyne burst away from N’golo Kante and beat Kepa with a superb shot into the far corner.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel was critical about the performance of his attack, in particular Lukaku, who recently had to apologize for an interview with Italian media in which he said he was unhappy with the German nL1N2TK1KT coach’s system.
Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick described the opening 30 minutes at Villa as the best since he took charge, but he was left struggling to find positives after goals by Jacob Ramsey and Coutinho canceled out Bruno Fernandes’s double which had United 2-0 up with 20 minutes left. — Reuters
