Soccer
Chaser Liverpool narrowed the gap to leaders Manchester United's”>Manchester City on Sunday. The “Reds” won 3-1 (2-0) at Crystal Palace and are now nine points behind the “Citizens” with one game less than the “Citizens”, who on Saturday after twelve consecutive wins in the Premier League in a 1-1 in Southampton didn’t win again for the first time.
In London, in the absence of the star strikers Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane, who are at the Africa Cup of Nations, defense chief Virgil Van Dijk put the guests ahead early (8th), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain increased after half an hour (32nd). Odsonne Edouard was able to shorten the gap (55′), but Fabinho made the final decision from the point (89′). Arsenal had to settle for a 0-0 draw against bottom side Burnley in front of their home crowd and thus lost important points in the race for a place in the Champions League.
Manchester City last failed to win before the 1-1 draw in Southampton on October 30, 2021, after losing 2-0 to Crystal Palace. Kyle Walker-Peters gave the home team, coached by Styrian Ralph Hasenhüttl, an early lead (7′) and Aymerick Laporte scored the deserved equalizer after the break (65′). Southampton had already wrested a 0-0 away draw from City in the autumn.
Last minute win for Manchester United
Record champions Manchester United previously celebrated an important last-minute victory. The Red Devils beat West Ham United 1-0 with a goal from Marcus Rashford in the third minute of added time, and thus moved past their table neighbors and direct rivals for a Champions League place in fourth.
Drone and bottle throwing cause a stir
At the same time, a curious incident occurred in London in the game between Brentford and Wolverhampton. Because a drone was circling over the field, the referee interrupted the game for more than 15 minutes and sent the players to the dressing room. During the break, newly promoted Brentford tweeted that fans should send jokes to while away the wait.
Before that, Lucas Digne and Matty Cash of Aston Villa were hit by plastic bottles thrown at the players from the stands in their team’s 1-0 (1-0) away win against Everton. The incident happened on Saturday just before half-time when the Villa players were celebrating Emiliano Buendia’s goal (45+3). TV pictures showed how both Digne, who had switched from Everton to Villa just two weeks ago, and Cash, with a pained face, grabbed their heads and then briefly fell to the ground. Both could continue playing.
