London, Dec 15, 2020 (AFP) -For the second consecutive date, Chelsea missed the opportunity to become the Premier League leader by losing to Wolverhampton (2-1), this Tuesday at the start of the 13th round of the English championship while Manchester City did not go beyond the draw at home (1-1) against the penultimate, West Bromwich.
On Saturday, the Blues fell to Everton (1-0) when a victory would have offered them the top spot in the table.
Chelsea remain in fifth place with 22 points, three points behind Liverpool and Tottenham, who meet on Wednesday, and two points behind Leicester (3rd). The ‘Citizens’, for their part, could even have climbed to the third drawer of the podium in case of a wide victory, but they remain in sixth place 5 points behind the head.
In the first game of the day, the ‘Wolves’ made merits to take the three points against Frank Lampard’s men who were passive in the first act.
However, the Londoners managed to get ahead on the scoreboard thanks to an unexpected goal from Olivier Giroud, and they even smashed a ball over the crossbar from Kurt Zouma’s header.
At the center of Ben Chilwell, the French world champion finished off first with his left foot and the ball slipped under the body of Rui Patricio, who managed to get it out but the goal technology estimated that he had crossed the line of lime (50).
It was the forward’s eighth goal this season among all competitions, half of them scored against Sevilla in a Champions League match.
But that goal had the effect of waking up the locals, who first saw a Fabio Silva goal disallowed before another Portuguese, Daniel Podence, equalized in 66 with a right hand from inside the area after leaving two sitting defenders.
That was the 82nd straight goal for the Wolves scored by a non-British player.
It was finally Neto, another Portuguese footballer, who raised the series to 83 in the throes of the match (90 + 5) with a tight left-footed shot against which goalkeeper Edouard Mendy could do nothing.
“We were playing really well, on a long streak without losing, and maybe the guys were thinking ‘we’re playing well.’ And the moment you think you’re playing well things like this can happen,” Lampard explained.
The ‘Wolves’ of Nuno Espírito Santo thus sealed a victory after two defeats in which they could not count on Mexican striker Raúl Jiménez, down due to a concussion.
In the other game played on Tuesday in England, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City crashed into West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Sam Johnstone to settle for a 1-1 draw.
German Ilkay Gündogan put City ahead after half an hour from a pass from Raheem Sterling, but Portuguese defender Ruben Dias deflected a shot from Semi Ajayi (43) to his own goal that surprised Brazilian goalkeeper Emerson.
That was the first goal conceded by a City that had been playing for more than ten hours without removing a ball from within its nets.
West Brom is still 19th with just 7 points, but Slaven Bilic’s ‘Baggies’ are encouraging for the near future.
With 25 shots, Guardiola’s pupils got gunpowder wet this Tuesday, as reflected in two separate heads from Ilkay Gundogan and Raheem Sterling in added time, both ruined by Johnstone’s excellent reflexes.
Guardiola brought his star forward, Argentine Sergio Agüero, onto the pitch with 15 minutes remaining, but ‘Kun’ lacked pace after his latest physical problems.
“These games have to be won, we know, so we lost points (…) We are still at the beginning of December and there are many games to play,” Guardiola said.
If the 0-0 harvested at Old Trafford last Saturday can go through an acceptable result, this point slows the City’s aspirations with a third of the championship already overcome.
hap / ebe / iga / gh
AFP
