Rodri scored a goal in the last ten minutes to save Manchester City from loss at home and give them a 1-1 draw against Chelsea in a summit match in the English Premier League today, Saturday.
Manchester City’s draw gave breathing space to leaders Liverpool (57 points) and runner-up Arsenal (55 points), after the English Premier League champion’s tally in the last three seasons rose by only one point to 53 points and has a game in hand.
Chelsea prevented Manchester City from achieving its seventh consecutive victory in the English Premier League, drawing for the fifth time this season.
Chelsea raised its score to 35 points, in tenth place in the standings.
Chelsea took the lead with the first goal at the Etihad Stadium three minutes before the break, after a quick counterattack started by Nicholas Jackson, who advanced on the right wing and passed the ball towards an unmarked Raheem Sterling on the other side, who received it and dribbled past the last defender before putting the ball into the net.
Manchester City pressed almost all its lines in search of the equalizer after the end of the break, and Chelsea, in return, relied on counterattacks.
City wasted a large number of opportunities amid clear brilliance from Chelsea goalkeeper Georgi Petrovic, who saved his goal from shots from Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.
Haaland strangely missed a valuable opportunity to score an equalizer in the 78th minute after a perfect cross pass from Kevin De Bruyne, which the unmarked Norwegian striker met with a header from close range, but the ball went over the crossbar.
City’s pressure finally resulted in scoring the equalizer in the 83rd minute through Rodri, who fired a powerful direct shot from inside the area, which hit a Chelsea defender and went into the net.
Arsenal sweeps
Arsenal continued to chase the top spot in the league standings with a 5-0 win away to Burnley in a match in which duo Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka excelled to achieve their fifth successive victory in 2024.
Arsenal, which won 6-0 over West Ham United in the last round, managed to score 21 goals in the last five matches, and could have easily added more goals against Burnley.
Odegaard scored one goal and assisted another, while Saka scored two goals, raising Arsenal’s score to 55 points, two points behind leaders Liverpool, who won 4-1 earlier today over Brentford.
Odegaard gave Arsenal the lead just four minutes after the start of the match, after he received the ball on the edge of the area and fired a powerful shot with his left foot into the net.
Leandro Trossard won a penalty kick in the 39th minute after being obstructed inside the penalty area, and the referee did not hesitate to award it.
Saka took the penalty kick in the 41st minute and successfully converted it into the goal, despite an attempt by the Burnley goalkeeper, who was close to blocking the ball.
Saka added his second goal and the third for his team two minutes after the end of the break, scoring his 12th goal in the league this season, after a pass from Odegaard was received by the English winger, and he penetrated into the area and shot from a tight angle into the hosts’ goal.
The match was stopped in the 63rd minute for some time after Burnley player Aaron Ramsey fell and needed to use oxygen to be taken out on a stretcher after he suffered a knee injury following an intervention by Odegaard.
Trossard increased the difference to four goals in the 66th minute after Kai Havertz shot the ball inside the area, but it collided with the defense and was prepared for the Belgian winger, who shot directly into the net.
Havertz scored the fifth goal 12 minutes before the final whistle, after a smart move in executing a throw-in, as the German striker moved forward ahead of the Burnley defense to obtain the ball, penetrate into the area and calmly shoot into the goal.
Burnley coach Vincent Kompany had a difficult day, as he had to watch the match from the stands after being suspended for the third warning this season, and things turned from bad to worse.
Salah is back
Mohamed Salah scored a goal and provided an assist in his first appearance after recovering from injury, leading Liverpool to a 4-1 victory over host Brentford.
Salah, who missed previous matches since his injury with the Egyptian national team in the African Cup of Nations, came on as a substitute in the 44th minute of the first half after Diogo Jota was injured.
Darwin Nunez opened the scoring in the first half, and the match actually ended with goals from Alexis McAllister and Salah after the start of the second half.
Ivan Toney reduced the gap for Brentford, but Cody Jacobo scored the fourth goal for Liverpool, who achieved a comfortable victory.
In what appears to be one of the fiercest competitions for the title in recent years, Pep Guardiola’s team, Manchester City, which many see as strong favorites with the advantage of playing two fewer matches, hosts Chelsea this evening, after Arsenal visits its rival, Burnley.
Although his team achieved its sixth victory in the last seven league matches, there was bad news for coach Jurgen Klopp, whose team is already suffering from a long list of injuries, as both Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota came off injured in the first half, while Nunez was replaced at halftime of the match.
The Liverpool coach was already missing the efforts of a number of key players due to injury, including goalkeeper Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominik Soboslai.
“This is not really good,” Klopp told reporters when asked about the recent injuries. But we can’t change that anymore.
“In these cases, the level can drop, but what happened was exactly the opposite. We played an exceptional match. It was the best match ever since I was with Liverpool here at Brentford.”
Klopp appeared frustrated on the line as Brentford entered into physical challenges and forced Liverpool to go backwards at the beginning, and Tony also wasted several chances, but the visiting team opened the scoring with a wonderful finish from Nunez in the 35th minute.
Jota received a long ball from Virgil van Dijk and passed it with a wonderful header to Nunez, so the Uruguayan striker raced towards the penalty area before shooting the ball brilliantly over the goalkeeper, scoring his ninth goal in the league this season.
Salah participated as a substitute for Jota and had two opportunities in each half to add his name to the list of goal scorers.
The Egyptian striker scored Liverpool’s second goal in the 55th minute, after sending a pass from the right side to Mac Allister, who passed the defender and shot into the net.
Salah scored 13 minutes after the second goal, when Jacobo received a long ball from substitute goalkeeper Kwemin Keller, which he prepared with a header, and Salah pounced on the ball, beating Nathan Collins before shooting with his left foot.
Toni reduced the gap in the 75th minute when he followed the rebound after Kelleher blocked Sergio Reguilon’s shot wonderfully, but Liverpool decided the match when Jacobo scored the fourth goal.
The Dutch player, who replaced Nunez at halftime, received a pass from Diaz and shot into the net with his left hand.
Brentford coach Thomas Frank, whose team remained in 14th place with 25 points, said, “I think we were great in the first 35 minutes and had a lot of good chances. We should have shown quality or calm, but then we conceded the first goal.”
“If you want to beat the best teams in the English Premier League, you have to be perfect, unfortunately we were not like that today.”
2024-02-17 20:01:34
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