London: Manchester City tightened their stranglehold Wednesday at the top of the Premier League by trouncing bottom club West Bromwich Albion 3-0 as nearest rivals Manchester United suffered a chastening 0-2 at Tottenham Hotspur.
Pep Guardiola’s runaway leaders surged 15 points clear of their neighbours, who were outplayed by Spurs at Wembley after Christian Eriksen scored in just under 11 seconds.
Manchester City’s 12th straight league home win, thanks to goals from Fernandinho, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero, took them to 68 points. United are on 53 points with Chelsea dropping to fourth on 50, the same as third-placed Liverpool. Spurs moved to within two points of the pair on 48.
The match of the night at Wembley, though, played in front of a record crowd for a Premier League game of 81,978, proved a disappointing one for Jose Mourinho as his own major signing Alexis Sanchez failed to shine after United had conceded a ‘ridiculous’ early goal.
Eriksen cashed in with a neat finish after Spurs had launched a long ball straight from kick-off that was flicked on by Harry Kane and Dele Alli. Then Phil Jones, who was bullied by Kane for the first goal, hammered the ball clumsily into his own net when trying to clear from Kieran Trippier’s cross midway through the first half.
Meanwhile Antonio Conte suffered one of his worst Premier League defeats at Chelsea after three second half goals in the space of 16 minutes from Callum Wilson, Junior Stanislas and Nathan Ake earned Eddie Howe his best top-flight win with the Cherries.
Reuters