London: Defending champion Manchester City recovered from a goal down to beat Luton Town 2-1 in an away match and end a run of four games without victory while former winners Chelsea went down 0-2 to Everton in the Premier League on Sunday.
All eyes were on Manchester City in Luton, Bedfordshire, as they were taking the field after three draws and a defeat. However, despite an impressive opening half, the Light Blues conceded in the first half added time to trail 1-0 at the break.
But the 2022-23 Treble winners continued to pin the home side back after the restart and were rewarded around the hour-mark with two goals in two minutes from Bernardo and Jack Grealish to take all three points.
City looked determined and focused straight from kick-off and held the advantage for most of the first half but they could not break the Luton Town defence. They fought back well in the second half, scoring two goals to win three points.
With this win, City moved up to 33 points as they were placed in the fourth position behind Liverpool (37), Arsenal (36) and Aston Villa (35) as all teams have played 16 matches.
However, things did not go well for former champions Chelsea in Liverpool as they went down to Everton — a frustrating afternoon at Goodison Park seeing the Blues also suffer two potentially significant injuries.
For Everton, Abdoulaye Doucoure scored the first goal – his second in as many matches – eight minutes into the second half. Second-half substitute Lewis Dobbin smashed home his first senior Everton goal to seal the win and help Everton extend the gap between them and the relegation zone to four points.
The Everton supporters may have gone home happy after the club bagged three points, but there was not much excitement in the match as both teams spent most of the 90 minutes locked in a stalemate. The closest anyone came to finding a goal in a quiet first half was when Jordan Pickford turned Cole Palmer’s long-range effort away.
However, Everton got the first clear chance. Robert Sanchez was unlucky after doing well to keep out Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s initial shot one-on-one, but he couldn’t recover in time to prevent Abdoulaye Doucoure from scoring from the rebound.
The big setback for Chelsea was the injuries suffered by Robert Sanchez and Reece James, who were forced off the field before Everton got their second from a corner in added time.
–IANS