Champions Man City Drop Points At Home To Palace, Chelsea Stunned By Newcastle
19th January 2020
Sergio Aguero appeared to have turned the game on its head in the 82nd minute when the Argentine striker bagged his 250th goal in 360 games for the club
- Pep Guardiola's 49th birthday celebrations went flat as Fernandinho's late own goal forced Manchester City to settle for a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace
- On a busy day of top-flight action, the pitchside VAR monitor was used in the Premier League for the first time at Norwich, with Tottenham forced to settle for a goalless stalemate at Watford
- Cenk Tosun marked his first league start since his loan move from Everton with his maiden goal for the Eagles, the Turkish striker netting a close-range strike from Martin Kelly's flick in the 39th minute
LONDON, United
Kingdom- Pep Guardiola's 49th birthday celebrations went flat as
Fernandinho's late own goal forced Manchester City to settle for a 2-2 draw
against Crystal Palace, while Chelsea's top-four bid was dented by a surprise
1-0 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday.
On a busy day of top-flight action, the pitchside VAR
monitor was used in the Premier League for the first time at Norwich, with
Tottenham forced to settle for a goalless stalemate at Watford and Arsenal held
to a 1-1 draw by Sheffield United.
It was the drama at the Etihad Stadium that took the
spotlight as Fernandinho's last-gasp blunder left Guardiola in no mood to party
after City's faint hopes of retaining the title suffered another hammer blow.
The champions trail Liverpool by 13 points ahead of the
runaway leaders' clash with rivals Manchester United on Sunday.
"It was a tight game. It's difficult to analyse when
they shoot from one corner and have no more chances," Guardiola said.
"We had many chances, unfortunately we could not
win."
Cenk Tosun marked his first league start since his loan move
from Everton with his maiden goal for the Eagles, the Turkish striker netting a
close-range strike from Martin Kelly's flick in the 39th minute.
Sergio Aguero appeared to have turned the game on its head
in the 82nd minute when the Argentine striker bagged his 250th goal in 360
games for the club.
Aguero put City ahead in the 87th minute with a typically
predatory header from Benjamin Mendy's cross.
But there was a sting in the tale for Guardiola as
Fernandinho turned Zaha's cross into his own net in the 90th minute to end
second-placed City's run of three successive league wins.
- Chelsea downed late on -
Chelsea would have cemented their grip on fourth place with
a win on Tyneside, but they were unable to muster the cutting edge required to
break down stubborn Newcastle and fell to Isaac Hayden's header with just 20
seconds left in stoppage-time, losing 1-0.
Chelsea's first defeat in four league matches leaves
them five points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United.
After four league games without a victory, this was a
much-needed success for Newcastle, but a wasted opportunity for Chelsea to open
up a bigger gap in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
"We can't work anymore in training on finishing. You
need to have that killer instinct in front of goal. We need to score more goals
from front-line areas if we are going to get to where we want to be,"
Lampard said.
"It's quite clear from what I am saying now that we
know where we need to strengthen but we shall see."
At Vicarage Road, Troy Deeney's 70th-minute spot-kick was
saved by Paulo Gazzaniga before Tottenham's Erik Lamela was denied a last-gasp
winner by Ignacio Pussetto's goal-line clearance.
With England captain Harry Kane sidelined after hamstring
surgery, Tottenham have gone three league games without scoring.
Jose Mourinho's side are without a win in four league
matches since December 26 and sit eight points behind Chelsea.
Toothless Tottenham thought they had stolen the points in
stoppage-time when Lamela flicked Serge Aurier's cross towards goal, but
Watford's new signing Pussetto cleared off the line, with goal-line technology
showing just 10.04mm of the ball had not gone over.
Arsenal are 10 points adrift of the top four after the
Blades continued their superb first season back in the Premier League.
Gabriel Martinelli, 18, broke the deadlock in first-half
stoppage-time at the Emirates Stadium with a clinical finish from Bukayo Saka's
cross.
But Chris Wilder's side snatched an 83rd-minute equaliser
when John Fleck lashed home after Arsenal failed to clear.
Bottom of the table Norwich's vital 1-0 win over fellow
strugglers Bournemouth saw the pitchside monitor finally used to decide a red
card call.
Norwich took the lead when Bournemouth defender Steve Cook
was sent off after flinging himself across the goal to block Teemu Pukki's shot
with his hand.
Pukki fired home the resulting penalty in the 33rd minute,
but the Canaries had to survive a tense finish after Ben Godfrey was sent off
in the 76th minute.
Godfrey's foul on Callum Wilson was ruled a red card by referee
Paul Tierney after he checked with the monitor, a move that followed advice to
officials from Premier League chiefs this week to use the screen more often.
Wolves climbed to sixth after a 3-2 win at Southampton,
Everton drew 1-1 at West Ham and Brighton shared a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.