LONDON: Manchester City survived a scare at Luton Town to end their four-match winless run in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory, while Chelsea’s problems mounted with a 2-0 defeat at Everton on Sunday.

With star striker Erling Haaland absent due to injury, Pep Guardiola’s side trailed to Elijah Adebayo’s goal late in the first half at Kenilworth Road.

But, after squandering a host of chances, City finally clicked into gear with two goals in three minutes after the break.

Bernardo Silva equalised and Jack Grealish bagged the winner to give City a much-needed first victory in five league matches.

After their lethargic 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa on Wedn­esday, which followed draws with Chelsea, Liverpool and Totten­ham Hotspur, City were in danger of falling out of the title race.

Liverpool’s win at Crystal Palace on Saturday had moved the leaders seven points clear of City.

But fourth-placed City respo­nded with a gritty display to close the gap on Liverpool to four points.

“Great performance after what happened in the last results. We conceded the goal in the last minute of the first half. It was a really good test and the players reacted as they had to,” Guardiola said. “That is the challenge. They are still there in the way that they run, they fight and here and behave how we behave. I am really proud.”

City still have work to do to regain control of their bid for an unprecedented fourth successive top-flight title and Haaland’s fitness scare could not have come at a worse time.

Haaland, who had started all of City’s league matches this season, was sidelined with a foot injury that could impact his availability for the treble winners’ hectic Christmas schedule.

“It’s his foot, we’ll see. Day by day, week by week. Hopefully we can recover him for the Club World Cup,” Guardiola said.

Meanwhile, Everton continued to shrug off the impact of a 10-point Premier League deduction as victory over Chelsea took the Toffees four points clear of the relegation zone.

Abdoulaye Doucoure opened the scoring at Goodison Park before Lewis Dobbin’s first Everton goal imposed another damaging defeat on Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino.

“Football is about scoring goals and we were not clinical in front of goal,” Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino told the BBC. “I’m really, really disappointed. We didn’t get the point we deserved. I think we were better but we didn’t get what we wanted.

“This was a game to play and to win. It’s a problem we need to check. We need to analyse the reality. We need to talk and to try to improve in the next transfer market.”

Without the penalty for breaching financial rules, which Everton are appealing, Sean Dyche’s men would be four points above Chelsea in mid-table.

Pochettino shuffled his pack after a dreadful display in losing 2-1 at Manchester United in midweek.

But the Argentine is struggling to solve his side’s lack of a clinical edge up front, despite the club having spent 1 billion ($1.3 billion) on new players in the past three transfer windows.

Elsewhere, Fulham ran riot for the second time in a week as they thrashed West Ham United 5-0 at Craven Cottage.

Just four days after Fulham beat Nottingham Forest by the same scoreline, Marco Silva’s side turned on the style again.

Raul Jimenez opened the scoring to take his personal tally to four in five games having previously not scored a Premier League goal since March 2022 for Wolves.

Willian and Tosin Adarabioyo netted for Fulham before the interval, with a fine effort from Harry Wilson and a late tap-in from Carlos Vinicius completing the London derby demolition.

In Saturday’s late match, John McGinn’s early goal led surging Aston Villa to a club-record 15th consecutive home Premier League victory, a breathless 1-0 win over Arsenal that prevented Mikel Arteta’s Gunners from reclaiming top spot in the table.

Unai Emery’s Villa, who shocked champions City in a dominant 1-0 win on Wednesday as part of what McGinn called a “monumental week,” are now third on 35 points after 16 games in a jam-packed title race. Arsenal, who were overtaken by Liverpool earlier on Saturday, are second with 36.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2023