Manchester City rakes in win, thrifty win for leaders Arsenal

In England, the numbers one and two made no mistake. Leaders Arsenal recorded a somewhat meager 1-0 victory at Leicester City and Manchester City triumphed 4-1 at Bournemouth. The difference between the two teams is currently two points, but City has played one more game.

Manchester City had to do it again without the sick De Bruyne; the Belgian was also missing against Leipzig on Wednesday. Nevertheless, City were already leading comfortably 3-0 at half-time.

Alvarez scored on the rebound after Haaland’s effort hit the crossbar via the leg of former Feyenoord player Marcos Senesi. Haaland made the 0-2 himself, after Aké had sent Gündogan away with a fine pass.

After a blunder by Billing, Foden could easily make the third. Shortly after halftime, Bournemouth couldn’t get the ball away. Alvarez shot and the ball flew into the goal via Mepham’s body. City then believed it and in the closing stages Bournemouth had chance after chance. A volley from Lerma flew in.

Earlier in the day, Arsenal took on Leicester City, which this season is nothing like the team that surprisingly became champions of England in 2016. The club only managed to win seven times and local hero Jamie Vardy (36 by now and not always a base player anymore) seems to have seen the best of it by now too, with only one league goal this season.

Leicester are now even in danger of relegation soccer, having barely featured in the play against the table leader. Only the Brazilian Tetê got another chance, during the only phase in which the Londoners struggled briefly.

Because otherwise it was Arsenal that dominated, but thus struggled to score. Despite 75 percent ball possession and seven goal attempts, it was still 0-0 at halftime, partly because a beautiful curler by Leandro Trossard after a deflected corner was disallowed. Keeper Danny Ward was obstructed.

Immediately after halftime, Gabriel Martinelli did outwit the Leicester goalkeeper, after which a goal by Bukayo Saka (offside) was also disallowed. Oleksandr Zintshenko and Gabriel were kept from scoring by Ward.

Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo were both in the starting lineup at Liverpool, which hoped for a win at Crystal Palace on Saturday night. However, points were lost for the 13th time this season: 0-0. Liverpool’s best chance came from a free kick. Mo Salah lashed out, the ball flying toward the right corner, but was stopped by teammate Jordan Henderson, who stood in the way.

Only after halftime did Jurgen Klopp’s team become more dangerous, with another brilliant shot by Salah, which deflected off the crossbar. Ten minutes before time, Salah passed the ball sharply to Gakpo, but scoring three games in a row was not in the cards.

Number three Manchester United will not be in action in the Premier League this weekend, but will play the League Cup final against Newcastle United on Sunday.