Sports

Manchester clubs on top

September 23, 2017
Manchester City's Raheem Sterling scores their second goal against Crystal Palace during their English Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester Saturday. — Reuters
Manchester City's Raheem Sterling scores their second goal against Crystal Palace during their English Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester Saturday. — Reuters

LONDON — Raheem Sterling shone for Manchester City and Romelu Lukaku delivered for Manchester United as the Manchester clubs maintained a tight grip on the Premier League title race with Saturday victories.

Sterling scored a brace as City crushed bottom club Crystal Palace 5-0 to go top on goal difference above United, which won 1-0 at Southampton, courtesy of Lukaku's first-half goal.

Champion Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur kept pace with the top two, putting the pressure on Arsenal, who host West Bromwich Albion Monday.

Palace has now lost its first six games of the season after crashing to a heavy defeat at the Etihad Stadium in Roy Hodgson's second league game as manager.

City suffered an early blow when left-back Benjamin Mendy was forced off after hurting his knee in a collision with Andros Townsend, with Danilo taking his place. Mendy will undergo tests Sunday.

Guardiola's side went in front shortly before half-time when Leroy Sane converted after a one-two with David Silva.

Sterling's quick-fire double took the game beyond Palace, the England forward tapping in passes from Sane and Sergio Aguero in the 51st and 59th minutes.

Aguero made it 4-0, heading in Sane's cross to close to within one goal of Eric Brook's all-time City record of 177 goals, before Fabian Delph curled in a fine fifth.

City has scored 16 goals in its last three league games, having previously trounced Liverpool 5-0 and won 6-0 at Watford.

United had a rather less straightforward afternoon at Southampton, but it prevailed thanks to Lukaku's sixth goal of the campaign.

The Belgium international struck in the 20th minute, scoring at the second attempt after his header from Ashley Young's in-swinging cross was saved by Fraser Forster.

United manager Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands in stoppage time after encroaching onto the pitch.

Chelsea remains three points off the pace in third place after Alvaro Morata scored a hat trick in a breezy 4-0 win at Stoke City.

The Spain striker struck three times at the bet365 Stadium, opening the scoring in the second minute, with Pedro also on target.

Philippe Coutinho scored a stunning free-kick — his first goal since being refused a transfer to Barcelona — as Liverpool narrowly won 3-2 at Leicester City.

Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson were also on target, but Shinji Okazaki and Jamie Vardy replied for Leicester and Liverpool was indebted to Simon Mignolet for saving Vardy's 73rd-minute penalty.

Harry Kane took his tally to six goals in four games as Tottenham won 3-2 at West Ham United to chalk up a third successive away win.

Kane's first-half brace and a Christian Eriksen effort put Spurs 3-0 up before Serge Aurier was sent off and West Ham came back into the game through Javier Hernandez and Cheikhou Kouyate.

Second-half substitute Oumar Niasse netted twice as Everton snapped a run of three successive defeats by coming from behind to win 2-1 at home to Bournemouth, which had gone ahead through Josh King.

Richarlison's 89th-minute strike saw Watford snatch a 2-1 win at Swansea City, who looked set for a first home point after half-time substitute Tammy Abraham cancelled out Andre Gray's 13th-minute opener.

There was little to write home about at Turf Moor as Burnley and Huddersfield Town played out a goalless draw.

Leeds on top

Pablo Hernandez scored direct from a corner as Leeds beat Ipswich 3-2 to hold onto first place in the Championship promotion race Saturday.

Hernandez punished an error from Ipswich goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski, who pushed his drilled set-piece into his own net, to give Leeds a crucial third goal at Elland Road.

Pierre-Michel Lasogga and Kalvin Phillips had netted either side of David McGoldrick's equalizer for Ipswich.

Joe Garner pulled a goal back for Ipswich soon after Bialkowski's blunder, but Leeds held on to ensure it bounced back from its first league defeat of the season at Millwall last weekend.

Leeds remains above Cardiff and Wolves on goal difference after its promotion rivals also took maximum points.

Cardiff won 2-1 Sunderland as Craig Bryson put Neil Warnock's men ahead with his first goal for the club.

Lynden Gooch leveled from the spot with what was just Sunderland's eighth goal at home in 2017.

But Joe Ralls' penalty won it for Cardiff, which hosts Leeds Tuesday.

Wolves needed a last-minute goal to beat Barnsley 2-1 at Molineux.

Hull drew 1-1 at Reading as Fraizer Campbell's opener was cancelled out by Jon Dadi Bodvarsson's equaliser with three minutes left.

Brentford got their first win of the season, beating Bolton 3-0 and leaving their opponents still searching for that elusive first three points.

Birmingham started life after Harry Redknapp with a 1-1 draw away to Derby.

Fulham and Middlesbrough drew 1-1 at Craven Cottage as Aboubakar Kamara's opener was negated by Cyrus Christie's strike.

Norwich and Bristol City, Preston and Millwall and QPR and Burton all played out 0-0 draws. — Agencies


September 23, 2017
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