(Reuters) – Manchester City maintained their slim advantage at the top of the Premier League with a routine 2-0 win at Burnley on Saturday as Liverpool eased past Watford 2-0 to keep their title ambitions very much alive.
Brentford pulled off a stunning 4-1 victory at Chelsea with Christian Eriksen among the scorers and Manchester United were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Leicester City at Old Trafford.
Kevin De Bruyne put Manchester City ahead after five minutes when he found the top corner from a Raheem Sterling pass and Ilkay Gundogan added another before halftime to keep City one point clear of Liverpool ahead of their seismic clash next Sunday.”We came here to win the game and we did it. You never know what’s going to happen after an international break,” said City boss Pep Guardiola. “It was made more complicated by the fact we couldn’t score the third goal.”
Earlier, Diogo Jota put Liverpool ahead against Watford after 22 minutes in manager Juergen Klopp’s 250th game in charge before a late Fabinho penalty secured the points.
A Vitaly Janelt double and strikes from Eriksen and Yoane Wissa helped Brentford to a famous win over local rivals Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger broke the deadlock three minutes into the second half with a stunning long-range effort but Brentford responded almost instantly through Janelt, who rifled home from the edge of the box.
Eriksen, whose career was in doubt after suffering a near-fatal cardiac arrest during the European Championship last year, gave Brentford the lead in the 54th minute before Janelt grabbed a second and Wissa completed the rout. “Nobody saw it coming, especially after going 1-0 ahead. It was very untypical of us,” said Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, whose side remained third on 59 points, 14 behind leaders City.
“We stopped defending. We were not aware of enough of the danger, were sloppy with the defending and got punished… they were lucky and clinical enough to get three goals.”
