EPL round 27 kicks with Chelsea having their continued third victory in a row as they beat Leicester City 1-3 to send them to a fifth consecutive defeat.
Leicester City 1-3 Chelsea
Daka (39′), Faes (Red Card 87′) Chilwell (11′), Havertz (45’+6), Kovacic (78′).
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After The Blues Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund, Ben Chilwell Volley Goal from a tight angle against his old club set the mood for Chelsea.
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Chelsea’s Joao Felix had a goal ruled out by the VAR and hit the woodwork. Patson Daka equalized for Leicester City after Ricardo Pereira won the ball off Felix a few yards outside the box.
Enzo Fernandez’s clever aerial ball to Kai Havertz six minutes into first-half injury time sent Chelsea one up making it 1-2 in the first half.
Mateo Kovacic sealed the win as he volleyed in from Mudryk’s header after his first goal for the Blues was disallowed for offside.
The Foxes who were forced to play with 10 men following Wout Faes’ late dismissal, now just sit one point outside the relegation zone.
Chelsea is now in tenth place with 37 points having played 26 matches.
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Potter: It’s been a really good week
Chelsea head coach Graham Potter: “It’s been a team performance over the week, it takes a bit of time to develop that but the spirit of the boys is developing, it’s growing.
“The togetherness I really like, everyone supporting each other, fighting to play and ready to play. I’m delighted for the players, it’s been a tough period but this week has been a positive one.
“It’s been a really good week, three wins. It started with a determined performance against Leeds, then Dortmund and to back it up today is really impressive from the players because it isn’t easy.
“We’ve had a good week. We were a few centimetres away from a couple of more goals ourselves, they gave everything as well. It was a game in the balance and it was our quality which saw us over the line.”
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AFC Bournemouth 1-0 Liverpool
Billing (28′) Ouattara (28′) Assists Pens Missed Salah (69′)
Mohamed Salah’s penalty miss damaged Liverpool’s chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League as it helped Bournemouth climb out of the relegation zone.
The Red’s defeat comes after last week’s 7-0 thrashing of Manchester United. However, Salah, who became Liverpool’s all-time top Premier League scorer with 129 goals last week, blazed the penalty wide.
AFC Bournemouth punished Liverpool for poor defending when the unmarked Philip Billing struck from eight yards for his sixth Premier League goal of the season.
Virgil van Dijk had a header cleared off the line at 0-0 and substitute Diogo Jota was denied by Neto’s fine save before Liverpool won a penalty when the Portugal forward’s header was handled by Adam Smith.
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“This game was a massive knock,” said the Reds boss. “You know how it is with knocks, you have to take them and see how big the scars are and go from there.”
Liverpool faces Real Madrid on Wednesday, looking to claw back a 5-2 deficit in the Champions League.
With next week’s home game with Fulham postponed due to the London club’s involvement in the FA Cup followed by the first international break of 2023, this was Liverpool’s last game on the Premier League stage for three weeks.
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They face back-to-back away games at Manchester City (1 April) and Chelsea (4 April) when they return, followed by a home match with leaders Arsenal (9 April).
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp:
“Concerned? Yes, I see it,” added Klopp on his side’s away performances.
“In the home games we are in the top four but in the away games we are not even in Europe, there is always a reason and our away results are for sure [the reason].”
“What can I say? It was never really our game. Of course, we were dominant in the first half but they were a very compact side and they had the counter-attacks that they wanted to have.
really think the spaces where we have to play were super-clear, super-open – we didn’t use it [the space] often enough. We didn’t enjoy the challenge to face a deep, compact side.
“Then we go 1-0 down, not helpful obviously. In a counter-attack they did always the same stuff, but it was successful enough because we didn’t defend it well. I thought we started pretty OK second half, then we get the penalty, miss it, and then we were in a rush, so we didn’t create really enough there and that’s it.
Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Nottingham
Forest Kane (19′) (35′ pen), Son Heung-min (62′) Worrall (81′)
Harry Kane scored twice in a comfortable victory over Nottingham Forest restoring Spurs Hope for their place in the Premier League’s top four.
Liverpool’s surprise defeat earlier on Saturday means Spurs are six points clear of Jurgen Klopp’s side in fourth.
Kane broke the deadlock with a header from Pedro Porro’s delivery before netting his 20th league goal of the season from the penalty spot.
Son Heung-min increased Spurs’ advantage in the second half with an assist from Richarlison.
Going into the Nottingham Forest game, Spurs faced back-to-back 1-0 defeats by Wolves and Sheffield United in the Premier League and FA Cup respectively and were eliminated on Wednesday in the Champions League.
Kane is only the third player in Premier League history – after Sergio Aguero and Alan Shearer – to hit 20 top-flight goals in six separate seasons.
Spurs face Southampton next Saturday and a win would lift Conte’s team nine points clear of Liverpool, whose next Premier League game is at Manchester City in three weeks’ time, after the international break.
“Today in my players I have seen the fire in their eyes.
“Today was really important, it was vital to get three points, especially because after the game against Milan, but today it was really important because we know we only have the league now.
“There are 11 games to go, we needed today to bounce back to show that we are strong mentally.
“In this type of situation, the morale can be really down, instead I see the right spirit and the right desire to get three points.
“It was positive, but at the same time I said to my players this is the past and we have tonight to enjoy this win but then we have to start to think about the next game.”
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Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City
Haaland (78’minutes pen)
Pressure is still on Arsenal as Manchester City the Premier League champions reduced the gap at the top to two points with a victory over Crystal Palace.
Erling Haaland scored his 28th goal of the season from the penalty spot in the 78th minute after Michael Olise’s late challenge on Ilkay Gundogan and still the league’s top scorer.
This coming week is a busy week for City as they prepare for the second leg of their Champions League last 16 ties against RB Leipzig next before an FA Cup quarter-final against Burnley.
Man City manager Guardiola hailed the mentality of striker Haaland after coming back from his missed chance to score the winner.
Asked about his team’s overall mentality, Guardiola added:
“One of the best things of knowing him well together is he can miss one chance and he won’t get depressed, or he’s not sad. And he’s positive – next one,” Guardiola said.
“He knows he will have the chance and he’ll be there. That’s an incredible attribute as a football player and as an athlete. Normally, in football, basketball or tennis, when you’re thinking of the action just passed or finished, you cannot be a good athlete. This guy has another one, another one.
“Of course, he feels the pressure. It’s nice. You have to feel it. If you don’t feel the pressure, you will be in the bar drinking something. You have to cope and handle it.
“It’s the pressure of if we lose, we lose the Premier League. If we lose 2-0, we lose the Champions League. If we lose against Vinny [Kompany] then we lose the FA Cup. That is good mentality, to drive you to be the best.
Asked about his team’s overall mentality, Guardiola added: “Football is like that. We played incredibly well against Nottingham Forest to win 4-0, 5-0 and then we draw. They were really good.
“I couldn’t expect a 4-0 or 5-0 [this time] but we always tried to attack. They defended really well with the physicality they have. I had a feeling that [Jordan] Ayew, Eze, Zaha – they would come in the second half.
“They have incredibly talented players, they can keep the ball within each other. In the end, we found the penalty, good determination from Erling.”
EPL results;
- Bournemouth 1-0 Liverpool
- Everton 1-0 Brentford
- Leeds 2-2 Brighton
- Leicester 1- 3 Chelsea
- Tottenham 3-1 Nottingham Forest
- Crystal Palace 0-1 Manchester City
