Manchester City are back at the top of the Premier League table after an impressive victory over Saints at the Etihad Stadium. Leicester City are second in the league after a 1 – 1 draw at home against Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United.
Leicester City played host to the 20-time English champions in the late kick-off on Saturday and went ahead in the 24th minute as Jamie Vardy netted his 14th goal of the season. The England international broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of 10 consecutive Premier League games with a goal. Claudio Ranieri’s men have the same points tally as Pellegrini’s City but they are second in the league because of inferior goal difference.
Manchester United have dropped back to the third spot after the draw at the King Power Stadium. Bastian Schweinsteiger scored his first Premier League goal just before the half-time break, but it wasn’t enough to earn all three points. In the post-match conference, Van Gaal seemed frustrated with the stalemate and cited that they had some good opportunities to win the game in the second half.
The Premier League champions, Chelsea, were involved in a goalless draw at White Hart Lane. Neither side could find a breakthrough, and all the off-field antics of Diego Costa grabbed all the headlines. The Brazilian-born striker threw his bib towards Jose Mourinho after the latter’s decision of not using his services in the London derby. The incident went unnoticed by the Portuguese manager, but when he was made aware of it, he played down the incident. Mourinho said, “If he wants to hurt me it would not be with a bib. I have a good relationship with him.”
The North London club, Arsenal, are yet again struggling because of injuries to the main players. Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and Laurent Koscielny have joined the treatment room after the 1 – 1 draw at Norwich. Arsene Wenger will find it very hard to grind results with some of his best players unavailable in the busiest period of the Premier League season.
Jurgen Klopp won his first match at Anfield as Liverpool defeated Garry Monk’s Swansea 1 – 0 on Sunday. James Milner scored a penalty in the 62nd minute to earn three more points for his side. The Merseyside giants have climbed up to the sixth spot in the league table, and they are only six points behind the leaders, Manchester City and Leicester.
Crystal Palace were the big winners of the weekend as they thumped five goals past the troubled Newcastle United team. Newcastle are now 19th in the league table, only ahead of Aston Villa, who are already five points far from safety.
Aston Villa lost 2 – 3 to Watford on Saturday, thereby making it 11 losses and two draws in 14 matches. The good news for the Villans is that it is still very early, and they can definitely turn it around if they start making amendments soon. The league table looks incredibly tight as Man City and the 12th placed Watford are separated by only 10 points after 14 game weeks.