Wednesdays (Boxing Day) Premier Round Up

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Premier League round-up:
Advantage Liverpool as Manchester City lose to Leicester (December 26, 2018)

A review of the Boxing Day action in the top-flight...

Premier League results

Fulham 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Burnley 1-5 Everton
Crystal Palace 0-0 Cardiff City
Leicester City 2-1 Manchester City
Liverpool 4-0 Newcastle United
Manchester United 3-1 Huddersfield Town
Tottenham Hotspur 5-0 AFC Bournemouth
Brighton 1-1 Arsenal
Watford 1-2 Chelsea

Updated Premier League Table

Successive defeats for City as Leicester deliver Boxing Day shock

Manchester City's Premier League title challenge took another blow at the King Power Stadium on Boxing Day as they were beaten 2-1 by Leicester.

After losing at home to Crystal Palace on Saturday, Pep Guardiola's team now find themselves seven points behind leaders Liverpool and in third place after Tottenham's victory against Bournemouth.

City were unable to hold onto the lead given to them by Bernardo Silva, which sent the hosts out to 25/1 with Sky Bet to win before Marc Albrighton quickly equalised. Ricardo Pereira's 81st-minute strike proved to be the winner for Leicester.

City's misery was compounded further by Fabian Delph's last-minute red card.

Liverpool extend lead at top

Liverpool piled the pressure on defending champions Manchester City as they extended their lead over their Premier League title rivals with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Newcastle.

While Pep Guardiola's side were slipping to third place after a second-successive surprise defeat - this time at Leicester - the Reds barely got out of second gear in dispatching the struggling visitors.

Dejan Lovren's brilliant 11th-minute half-volley set the tone and after a soft penalty given for a foul on Mohamed Salah enabled the Egypt international to score his 15th of the season, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho completed the rout.

City, whom Liverpool face at the Etihad Stadium on January 3, are now seven points off the pace with Tottenham now the nearest challengers at six behind.

Free-scoring Spurs leapfrog City

Tottenham continued their brilliant festive period with a 5-0 rout over Bournemouth that takes them above Manchester City into second in the Premier League.

Spurs came into the game on the back of the 6-2 mauling of Everton on Sunday and again brought their shooting boots as Christian Eriksen, Son-Heung Min (2), Lucas Moura and Harry Kane found the net at Wembley.

It gave them an eighth Premier League win from the last nine games and keeps them firmly in the title race, still six points behind leaders Liverpool.

So much for Spurs becoming distracted at speculation linking boss Mauricio Pochettino to Manchester United. Since Jose Mourinho's Old Trafford exit not only did they thrash Everton but also beat Arsenal 2-0 in the Carabao Cup.

Pogba scores twice as United make it back-to-back wins under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Old Trafford return ended in another victory for Manchester United's caretaker manager as a Paul Pogba brace helped see off spirited Huddersfield.

Charged with injecting new life into United's ailing season following Jose Mourinho's dismissal, Solskjaer's side failed to reach the heights scaled at Cardiff yet ended up with another comprehensive Premier League win.

The 45-year-old received a superb reception as he returned to Old Trafford as the club's manager, 11-and-a-half years after representing them as a player, and oversaw a 3-1 win against Huddersfield as Pogba's pair complemented Nemanja Matic's first-half goal.

It could have been a different story had captain David De Gea not produced an outstanding stop to deny Laurent Depoitre levelling during a spell in the ascendancy for David Wagner's strugglers. Huddersfield would beat the United goalkeeper, but Mathias Jorgensen's effort was only a consolation.

That late goal, and the Terriers' time on top, underlined the work still required at United, but the fans' appreciation was as audible as it was understandable after flashes of excitement at a ground where there has been precious little.

Ton-up Hazard guns down Watford

Eden Hazard passed a century of Chelsea goals with a match-winning double in the Blues' 2-1 Premier League victory at Watford.

Chelsea's talisman forward has had a direct hand in a league-high 19 goals in 18 league games this term, and his Vicarage Road brace dragged the Blues back to winning ways.

Hazard opened the scoring with his 100th Chelsea strike, showing typically impressive composure in front of goal to round Ben Foster and tap home.

The 27-year-old then buried a penalty he had won by drawing a foul from Foster to put the Blues back ahead after Roberto Pereyra's snap volley had levelled the scores just before half-time.

Everton hit Burnley for five

Everton scored three times in the opening 22 minutes at Turf Moor to end a winless five-match run and push Burnley deeper into trouble.

Any lingering negativity from the Toffees' 6-2 hammering by Tottenham on Sunday was swept aside inside two minutes as Yerry Mina headed in his first goal in English football and Marco Silva's side went on to triumph 5-1.

Lucas Digne curled in a superb free-kick 11 minutes later and Ben Mee's handball allowed Gylfi Sigurdsson to net the third from the spot.

Ben Gibson pulled one back before half-time on his first Premier League start for Burnley following double hernia surgery but any hopes of a second-half comeback were ended by Digne's second in the 71st minute, with Richarlison adding a fifth in injury time.

Fulham unfortunate as points shared in early kick-off

Wolves midfielder Romain Saiss scored his maiden Premier League goal to deny struggling Fulham what would have been only their third victory of the season.

The Cottagers were leading through substitute Ryan Sessegnon's second-half strike and six minutes from registering a vital win in their survival bid.

But Moroccan international Saiss had other ideas to snatch a 1-1 draw for the visitors and leave Claudio Ranieri's side, who started the day in bottom spot, still deep in trouble.

Only three sides in Premier League history have avoided relegation having been bottom of the table on Christmas Day, and Fulham will have to improve at both ends of the pitch if they want to become the fourth.
Arsenal frustrated at the Amex

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck his 13th Premier League goal of the season but a defensive error once again proved costly for Arsenal as Brighton recovered to claim a 1-1 at the Amex Stadium.

Aubameyang fired the Gunners in front after just seven minutes but Stephan Lichtsteiner's failure to deal with a long ball forward handed Jurgen Locadia the chance to level 10 minutes before the interval with his his first goal since February.

Both sides had opportunities to secure three points in the second half but the visitors were left ruing the failure to close to within four points of third-placed Manchester City.

Stalemate at Selhurst

Cardiff resisted intense pressure to secure only their second Premier League point away from home this season in a goalless draw at Crystal Palace.

The Bluebirds were hammered 5-1 by Manchester United on Saturday and could have lost just as heavily at Selhurst Park but goalkeeper Neil Etheridge's resilience, Palace's unconvincing finishing and some desperate defending earned them a point.

Roy Hodgson's team came into the match on the back of a 3-2 win at defending champions Manchester City, but if they finally felt in position to push up the table they wasted the finest of opportunities against opponents who offered little in the attacking third.