LONDON: Pep Guardiola suffered the largest league defeat of his managerial career as Manchester City were thrashed 4-0 by Everton, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s late equaliser gave Manchester United a 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Sunday.
The draw put Liverpool into third spot, alongside second-placed Tottenham Hotspur on 45 points, but left Chelsea seven points ahead of the pack after 21 games, while City’s fourth in their last eight league games and left them 10 points behind the leaders.
United — who saw the end of their nine-match winning streak — remain sixth with 40 points, four adrift of Arsenal in fourth.
Goals from Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas put Everton in control at Goodison Park.
Teenager Tom Davies scored a fine first goal for Everton in the closing stages and debutant Ademola Lookman completed the rout after coming on as an 89th minute substitute.
It was another chastening experience for City boss Guardiola, who wasn’t used to such humiliation in his trophy-laden spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
The defeat was City’s fourth in their last eight league games and left them 10 points behind leaders Chelsea.
Publicly at least, Guardiola wasn’t angry with his expensively assembled team and he insisted the chastening afternoon could have gone differently if City had taken their early chances.
“We created enough chances in the first half to score. After what happened we were not able to score and Everton had one chance and scored,” Guardiola said. “They scored straight after half-time and that is tough mentally for the players.”
But the Spaniard did concede City look destined not to win the title in his first season in England.
“The first one, yeah,” said Guardiola when asked if top spot is now out of the question. “The first one is a 10-point gap and that is a lot of course.”
United manager Jose Mourinho had called for his club’s fans to turn up the volume after some subdued atmospheres at Old Trafford recently.
But Jurgen Klopp’s side silenced the home supporters when James Milner converted a 27th minute penalty awarded for Paul Pogba’s needless handball.
Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet made fine saves to keep out Ibrahimovic’s free-kick and a Henrikh Mkhitaryan strike as United pushed for an equaliser.
Not for the first time, Ibrahimovic was United’s saviour as the Swedish forward struck from close-range in the 84th minute for his 19th goal since his free transfer from Paris Saint Germain in the close-season.
There was a heated finale as Mourinho and Klopp argued on the touchline after United’s Ander Herrera grappled with Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino. They were eventually separated and exchanged a handshake at the final whistle.
ALONSO LIFTS CHELSEA
On Saturday, Marcos Alonso proved an unexpected replacement for the absent Diego Costa as Chelsea won 3-0 at Leicester City to consolidate their position atop the table.
Costa, Chelsea’s top scorer, was missing after reportedly rowing with coaching staff about his fitness, but Spanish wing-back Alonso struck early in both halves and Pedro completed a rout of the feeble champions.
“If there are problems, I prefer to solve the problem in the changing room and not during the press conference,” Conte said. “If, and I repeat if, there are problems.”
Costa’s absence followed the Spain international being linked with a big-money move to the ambitious Chinese Super League and reports of a rift with the Chelsea coaching staff.
Arsenal kept up the pressure after a 4-0 trouncing of Swansea City, who are now bottom.
Olivier Giroud scored in a fifth consecutive game, including last weekend’s FA Cup victory over Preston, and Alexis Sanchez volleyed in his 14th goal of the league campaign.
Alex Iwobi had two deflected strikes that went down as own goals scored by Jack Cork and Kyle Naughton.
Hull City recovered to beat Bournemouth 3-1 with a double from Abel Hernandez giving new manager Marco Silva the ideal league debut as they leapt from last place above Swansea and Sunderland, who were beaten 3-1 at home by Stoke City.
Peter Crouch scored his 99th league goal for the Potters — a header, naturally — while Marko Arnautovic netted twice.
West Ham United brushed off the absence of want-away star Dimitri Payet to sink Crystal Palace 3-0, goals by Sofiane Feghouli and Manuel Lanzini sandwiching a sensational Andy Carroll bicycle kick.
Joey Barton made a remarkable return for his old club Burnley, coming on as a substitute and scoring with a free-kick in the 1-0 win over Southampton.
There were emotional scenes at Vicarage Road as Watford’s fans paid tribute to late former manager Graham Taylor, who died on Thursday aged 72, prior to their side’s goalless draw with Middlesbrough.
Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2017
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