Manchester City stretch lead to 15 points as United and Chelsea stumble

Manchester City 3 WBA 0

Manchester City stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League table to 15 points last night with a comfortable 3-0 win over West Bromwich Albion. Goals from Fernandinho, Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero sealed the win against an outclassed Baggies side who mustered their first shot on goal two minutes from time.

It was an ideal way for new signing Aymeric Laporte to make his debut, the French defender dipping his toe into English football just a day after making his club record £57m move from Athletic Bilbao. “He made an amazing, amazing performance,” enthused City manager Pep Guardiola. “Yesterday he made the first training session, just passed the ball, but today we saw how good he is.”

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Tottenham 2 Manchester United 0

Guardiola had further reason to be happy when he saw the other results from the Premier League, notably the 2-0 defeat of Manchester United at Tottenham. Christian Eriksen sent Spurs on their way after just 11 seconds (the joint-third-fastest goal scored in the Premier League) and an own goal from Phil Jones on 28 minutes doubled the hosts’ advantage. United manager Jose Mourinho didn’t mince his words after the game, labelling the defence for the first goal as “ridiculous”, and adding: “To win matches a team needs to score goals and also defend well - on this occasion we were very bad.”

Chelsea 0 Bournemouth 3

There was further good news for Guardiola at Stamford Place where third-place Chelsea were humiliated at home to Bournemouth. Second-half goals from Callum Wilson, Junior Stanislas and Nathan Ake secured the Cherries’ first away win in seven league matches in what manager Eddie Howe described as “our best result”. Chelsea, who had kept clean sheets in five of their past seven games, didn’t manage a shot on goal in the first half and manager Antonio Conte was as blunt as Mourinho in his post-match comments. “They deserved to win the game,” he said. “We need to restart to work and to do our best. We have to accept it’s a bad result and understand that we have to fight this season. If someone didn’t understand this they don’t understand football.”

The defeat was Chelsea’s heaviest in the league during Conte’s 18 months in charge and means the Blues drop to fifth, level on points with Liverpool but with an inferior goal difference.

Elsewhere

In other results, Theo Walcott scored his first goals for new club Everton in their 2-1 defeat of Leicester at Goodison Park. The former Arsenal striker netted twice in the first half to earn the admiration of manager Sam Allardyce. “He has got something to prove and this is a big transfer at this time of his career,” said Allardyce. “He has started to pay us back immediately.”

Meanwhile Stoke City moved out of the relegation zone courtesy of the point they picked up at home to Watford in a goalless draw that was a dire advertisement for football. Fellow relegation strugglers Southampton also earned a point in a 1-1 draw at home to Brighton, although the Saints remain in the drop zone on 23 points, one shy of Stoke.