Spurs end Chelsea unbeaten start

Man City, Liverpool cruise as Man Utd stumble

LONDON, Nov 24, (Agencies): Tottenham inflicted Maurizio Sarri’s first competitive defeat as Chelsea boss to leapfrog their London rivals into third in the Premier League with a 3-1 win at Wembley that barely reflected Spurs’ dominance.

Dele Alli and Harry Kane put the hosts 2-0 in front inside 16 minutes and Son Heung-min’s brilliant individual run and finish early in the second-half hauled Mauricio Pochettino’s side back to within five points of league leaders Manchester City.

West Ham 0, Man City 4

Premier League champions Manchester City cruised to a comfortable 4-0 win over West Ham United at the London Stadium as Pep Guardiola’s side remained unbeaten at the top of the table.

Captain David Silva fired City ahead from the edge of the six-yard box in the 11th minute, converting a deflected low cross from the right by Raheem Sterling.

City doubled their lead in the 19th minute as Leroy Sane burst past former City defender Pablo Zabaleta on the left hand side of the penalty box and fired in a low cross which Sterling tapped home from close range at the far post.

Roles were reversed for City’s third in the 34th minute with a cross from the right from Sterling finding Sane who shrugged off a challenge from West Ham defender Fabian Balbuena and slid the ball into the net again from close range.

West Ham were much better in the second half and had a great chance to pull one back in the 58th minute when Michail Antonio burst clear after a pass from substitute Javier Hernandez but his shot hit the foot of the right hand post.

Marko Arnautovic hobbled off the pitch in the 89th minute after West Ham had already used all their substitutes, leaving the London side to finish the game with ten men. City took advantage in the 93rd minute as Sane fired home his second from a cross from substitute Gabriel Jesus.

 Watford 0, Liverpool 3

Liverpool maintained pressure on table-topping Manchester City with three second-half goals sealing a comfortable 3-0 victory at Watford.

After a largely uneventful first half, Mohamed Salah put the ball past Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster in the 67th minute before England defender Trent Alexander-Arnold scored a stunning second goal. The 20-year-old beat Foster with a brilliant whipped free kick from 25 metres nine minutes later, before his international team mate Jordan Henderson was dismissed for a second bookable offense.

Liverpool were not hindered by their numerical disadvantage, however, with Roberto Firmino adding a late third goal as the visitors extended their unbeaten start to the Premier League season to 13 games.  Juergen Klopp’s side remain second with 33 points and trail Champions City by two points after Pep Guardiola’s side beat West Ham United 4-0 on Saturday. Watford slipped to eighth after a third game without victory.

 Fulham 3, Southampton 2

Claudio Ranieri celebrated a winning return to the Premier League as he helped his new Fulham team to move off the foot of the table with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Southampton at Craven Cottage.

The Italian manager replaced Slavisa Jokanovic during the international break and weaved his magic straight away as he helped Fulham to end a losing run of seven consecutive defeats and secure their first Premier League victory since August.

Southampton threatened to spoil the party when Stuart Armstrong opened the scoring after 18 minutes, netting his first goal for the club.

Fulham, though, refused to lie down and drew level on 33 minutes when Maxime Le Marchand picked out Aleksandar Mitrovic who directed a header past Alex McCarthy.

The home side clearly had the momentum and made the most of it when they added a second goal just before halftime when Ryan Sessegnon burst clear down the left-hand side and fired over a low cross that was tapped home by Andre Schurrle at the far post.

Southampton were also desperate for the points and were handed a lifeline when Armstrong grabbed his second goal of the game after 53 minutes when he latched on to a back-heel from Cedric Soares and struck an impressive shot into the top corner.

Mitrovic, though, make it a dream return for Ranieri when he scored the winner for Fulham, and his second of the game, after 63 minutes. Sessegnon turned provider once again and flicked the ball in to the Serbian forward who produced an acrobatic volley and saw his shot fly past McCarthy into the corner of the net.

 Man United 0, Palace 0

A tepid Manchester United dented their hopes of catching up with the Premier League’s top four after failing to spark in a dour 0-0 home draw with 15th-placed Crystal Palace.

The result left United in seventh place on 21 points from 13 games, 14 adrift of leaders Manchester City and six behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, who were hosting third-placed Chelsea in the 1730 GMT kick-off.

Striker Romelu Lukaku returned to United’s starting line-up after being dropped in four previous games in all competitions but he looked rusty and the home side were fortunate to scrape a share of the spoils against the more adventurous visitors.

Wilfried Zaha and Patrick Van Aanholt came close for Palace in the opening half and Cheikhou Kouyate had a goal correctly disallowed for marginal offside, while keeper Wayne Hennessey denied Jesse Lingard at the other end.

 Everton 1, Cardiff 0

A simple strike by Icelandic attacker Gylfi Sigurdsson gave Everton a 1-0 win over Cardiff City  at Goodison Park, as the goal-shy visitors once again failed to score away from home.

Cardiff have managed only two goals on their travels so far this season and though they matched Everton for pace and intensity for much of the game, their inability to create decent scoring opportunities cost them once again.

After dominating possession, Everton took the lead in the 59th minute after Theo Walcott’s shot was saved by Cardiff keeper Neil Etheridge. Sigurdsson was on hand to rifle the rebound into the net and put the Merseysiders in front.

Victor Camarasa went close for Cardiff with a rasping shot from distance 13 minutes later but Jordan Pickford dived smartly to his right to save it.

Brighton 1, Leicester 1

Jamie Vardy’s late penalty rescued a point for a Leicester City side who overcame the dismissal of James Maddison to draw 1-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion.

England forward Vardy, a second-half substitute, converted his first goal since September in the 79th minute after Kelechi Iheanacho was brought down by Beram Kayal.

Earlier, Brighton’s Glenn Murray scored on his 100th Premier League appearance, nodding home Anthony Knockaert’s corner for his seventh goal of the season in the 15th minute.

Just thirteen minutes later, things went from bad to worse for Claude Puel’s side when Maddison was sent off for two yellow cards in as many minutes – the second for diving. Iheanacho went desperately close to winning it for 10-man Leicester but he dragged his low effort from the edge of the area narrowly wide in the 87th minute.

Results/Standings

LONDON, Nov 24, (AFP): British soccer results on Saturday:

English Premier League

Brighton             1     Leicester             1

Everton             1     Cardiff                0

Fulham              3     Saints                2

Man United         0     Palace               0

Watford             0     Liverpool             3

West Ham          0     Man City             4

Tottenham          3     Chelsea              1

Championship

Hull                 0     Nott Forest           2

Leeds               2     Bristol                0

Millwall             1     Bolton                1

Preston             4     Blackburn            1

Rotherham          2     Sheff Utd             2

Sheff Wed          1     Derby                2

Stoke               2     QPR                  2

Swansea            1     Norwich              4

Wigan               0     Reading              0

Brentford            1     M’boro               2

Played Friday

Ipswich             1     West Brom           2

Scottish Premiership

Hamilton            0     Celtic                3

Hibernian           2     Dundee              2

Motherwell          3     Aberdeen            0

Rangers             3     Livingston           0

St Johnstone       0     Kilmarnock          0

St Mirren            2     Hearts                0

British Soccer Standings

English Premier League

                   P   W  D   L    GF  GA  Pts

Man City        13   11   2    0    40    5  35

Liverpool       13   10   3    0    26    5  33

Tottenham      13   10   0    3    23   11  30

Chelsea        13    8   4    1    28   11  28

Arsenal         12    7   3    2    26   15  24

Everton         13    6   4    3    20   15  22

Man Utd        13    6   3    4    20   21  21

B’mouth        12    6   2    4    21   16  20

Watford         13    6   2    5    17   17  20

Leicester       13    5   3    5    18   17  18

Wolves         12    4   4    4    12   13  16

Brighton        13    4   3    6    14   19  15

WHU            13    3   3    7    14   22  12

Newcastle      12    2   3    7      9   15    9

Palace          13    2   3    8      8   17    9

Burnley         12    2   3    7    12   25    9

Saints          13    1   5    7    10   24    8

Cardiff          13    2   2    9    11   26    8

Fulham         13    2   2    9    14   33    8

H’field          12    1   4    7      6   22    7

Championship

                   P   W  D   L    GF  GA  Pts

Norwich         18   11   3    4    32   21  36

M’boro          18    9   7    2    21    9  34

Leeds           18    9   6    3    31   17  33

WBA            18    9   4    5    39   26  31

Sheff Utd       18    9   4    5    29   21  31

Derby           18    9   4    5    27   21  31

Nott Forest      18    7   9    2    25   16  30

QPR            18    8   3    7    20   24  27

Swansea       18    7   5    6    20   17  26

Blackburn      18    6   8    4    21   25  26

Villa            17    6   6    5    27   23  24

Birmingham    17    5   9    3    23   20  24

Stoke           18    5   8    5    21   22  23

Bristol City     18    6   4    8    20   21  22

Brentford        18    5   6    7    28   25  21

Preston         18    5   6    7    30   31  21

Wigan          18    6   3    9    19   26  21

Sheff Wed      18    5   5    8    22   32  20

Rotherham      18    4   7    7    16   25  19

Reading        18    4   5    9    24   29  17

Millwall         18    4   5    9    23   30  17

Bolton          18    4   5    9    12   24  17

Hull             18    4   4  10    16   26  16

Ipswich         18    1   8    9    15   30  11

Scottish Premiership

                   P   W  D   L    GF  GA  Pts

Celtic           13    9   2    2    30    6  29

Rangers        13    8   3    2    35   11  27

Hearts          14    8   2    4    19   15  26

Kilmarnock     14    7   4    3    19   12  25

St Johnstone   14    7   3    4    16   18  24

Aberdeen       13    6   3    4    16   13  21

Hibernian       13    5   4    4    23   14  19

Livingston      13    5   4    4    12   10  19

Motherwell      13    4   2    7    15   22  14

Hamilton        14    3   1  10      9   31  10

St Mirren        14    2   2  10      8   26    8

Dundee         14    1   2  11      8   32    5

Note: Standings read as played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points.