EPL Round-up | Liverpool and Manchester City fail to keep pace with Chelsea

01/16/2017

Manchester City and Liverpool struggled to keep pace with leaders Chelsea as they dropped points against Everton and Manchester United respectively. City were thrashed 4-0 at the Goodison while United rallied to secure a point against Liverpool at Old Trafford.

United's winning streak comes to an end

The second Northwest derby of the season ended in a draw as Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored a late equalizer after James Milner had put the visitors ahead through a spot kick in the first half. The biggest game in English Football got a massive build up, but it was a moment of madness by the most expensive footballer in the world that opened up the game.

While defending a corner, Paul Pogba lost sight of the ball and ended up punching the ball away inside the United box. Michael Oliver awarded Liverpool the spot kick and James Milner beat David de Gea from 12 yards to give Liverpool the lead.

United created chances of their own but Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pogba and Martial all missed their opportunities to level the score. It was the big Swede, who went level with Diego Costa for the golden boot race, who brought United back in the game with a goal in the 84th minute. The draw ensured that United remained sixth, just two points behind City, while Liverpool moved up a place, replacing Arsenal at the third spot on the table.

"In the end period of the game when United started playing long balls after 80 minutes of high intense football it is really hard," Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said after the match.

Everton put four past City

John Stones' return to Goodison proved to be a forgettable affair as the Toffees put four past Claudio Bravo to end City's title challenge. Romelu Lukaku opened the scoring for the home side when he side-footed a Kevin Mirallas played him in with a brilliant cut back. Just after the interval, Mirallas turned goalscorer as he doubled Everton's lead with a well-placed finish.

City huffed and puffed but never created any chances to trouble Everton. As they had done for most parts of the game, Everton retreated, soaked up the pressure and hit City on the counter. The tactic worked like a charm as Tom Davies himself finished off a brilliant Everton move that the teenager had started with a long run.

Ademola Lookman added insult to injury when he scored in injury time to put Everton 4-0 clear of the visitors. After the match, when City manager Pep Guardiola was asked if the gap between them and Chelsea was too large he replied, "Yes. Ten is a lot of points."

EPL Round-up | Liverpool and Manchester City fail to keep pace with Chelsea

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