Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Match Week 25 Results: Sterling Performance By Manchester City; Liverpool Edges Burnley; Late Point for Hammers; Saints Bedevil Manchester United; Wolves Devour Spurs; Newcastle Wins Third Straight

Manchester City continued to cruise towards a second consecutive Premier League title with a decisive 4-0 win over Norwich City. Raheem Sterling scored a hat trick to extend the Citizens’ current unbeaten run to 15 matches as the club continues to enjoy a nine-point advantage on second place Liverpool. The Canaries will pick up the pieces and continue their survival chase after the league leaders ended Norwich’s own encouraging three match unbeaten run.

Liverpool kept pace with Manchester City by narrowly defeating Burnley 1-0. Fabinho has become an unlikely offensive force for the Reds as the Brazilian scored for a third time in his last four matches.

Burnley provided a stern test for Liverpool in the wind and rain at Turf Moor, but the Clarets again failed to get a result and remain in the league basement with just one win on the season.

West Ham remained fourth in the table, one point ahead of Manchester United, with a 2-2 draw at Leicester as a second half stoppage time goal by defender Craig Dawson salvaged the point for the east Londoners. The Hammers’ Jarrod Bowen continues to be the maestro for Manager David Moyes’ squad. Bowen opened the scoring versus Leicester with his fifth goal in West Ham’s last five matches before delivering the corner leading to Dawson’s winning header.

Manchester United drew for a third time in their last five matches in a 1-1 final at Old Trafford versus Southampton. Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score for a sixth consecutive match, his longest such streak in 11 years. Southampton dominated long stretches of the match at a venue where they were embarrassed 9-0 just one year ago. The Saints have lost just once in their last ten matches across all competitions. Manchester United missed their opportunity to move back into the top four with a second consecutive draw. The Red Devils have drawn three of their last five matches in helping to fuel a scramble for the final Champions League slot. United gets a chance to overtake West Ham on Tuesday when Manager Ralf Rangnick’s side play a rescheduled match versus Brighton.

Wolverhampton is an unlikely entry to the Champions League race. Normally goal challenged Wolves ravaged a poor Tottenham Hotspur defense in securing a 2-0 over the London club. Wolves now trail fourth place West Ham by only four points despite scoring fewer goals than any club outside the relegation zone. Spurs manager Antonio Conte again threw his players under the bus in post-game comments as the Italian manager’s commitment to the club remains in doubt. Tottenham Hotspur, however, is only five points from Champions League qualification despite some disappointing results and the manager’s tired refrain regarding the players’ quality and heart.

Brighton extended its unbeaten run to six matches, winning for a third time in that span as the Seagulls disposed of Watford 2-0. Brighton have lost fewer matches than all but the top three teams in the table and is now racking up some victories to accompany its league high number of draws. Relegation bound Watford failed to score for a fourth consecutive match.

Newcastle defeated Aston Villa 1-0, a third consecutive victory which moved the Magpies four points clear of the drop zone. Kieran Trippier scored for a second consecutive match before suffering a broken bone in his foot. The loss of the former Atletico Madrid player could be a blow to Newcastle’s survival campaign. Aston Villa’s fourth loss in its past eight matches, meanwhile, has taken some of the shine off new manager Steven Gerrard.

Crystal Palace has not won a league match in 2022 and the Eagles continued their frustration away from home in a goalless draw at Brentford. Palace has won just once on the road this season. Brentford avoided defeat for only the second time in its last eight matches.

Frank Lampard earned his first Premier League win as Everton manager as the Toffees soundly defeated Leeds in a 3-0 final at Goodison Park. Donny van de Beek made his first start for Everton and the former Ajax and Manchester United player performed well in the Toffee midfield. The much-needed victory ended a four-match losing streak for Everton.


Club World Cup Championship


Chelsea are Club World Cup champions after a 2-1 win over Brazilian opponent Palmeiras. Kai Havertz scored the winning penalty in extra time and has scored the winning goal for manager Thomas Tuchel in both the Champions League and Club World Cup finals. The Chelsea trophy case now includes at least one trophy from every major competition since Roman Abramovich purchased the team in 2003. Chelsea joins Manchester United and Liverpool as Premier League clubs to have won the global competition. 


Champions League

Champions League competition resumes this week with the top two English clubs in action. Manchester City heads to Sporting Lisbon while Liverpool travels to Inter Milan. Two managers with Premier League ties face off in one of the competition’s other headline matches this week when Mauricio Pochettino’s PSG host Carlo Ancelotti and Real Madrid. 

 

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