Chelsea smiling third after painful missteps by Liverpool and City

Saturday, October 30, 2021 at 5:59 PM

Chelsea took the lead in the Premier League more firmly on Saturday afternoon. Thomas Tuchel’s team made no mistake at Newcastle United (0-3) with Hakim Ziyech in the base, while the competition was damaged. Manchester City lost to Crystal Palace (0-2) in Josep Guardiola’s 200th Premier League game after a red card for Aymeric Laporte, while Liverpool gave away a 2-0 lead against Brighton & Hove Albion. Chelsea are now three and five points clear of Liverpool and City respectively.

Newcastle United – Chelsea 0-3
Ziyech had a base place at Chelsea for the second time in a row, while Kai Havertz replaced the still injured Romelu Lukaku in the striker. Newcastle were pushed back from the start and managed to stop Chelsea from scoring until the 65th minute. After half an hour of play, Ziyech saw a goal disallowed for offside, while the attacking midfielder fired over from a free kick just before half-time. Immediately after the break Ziyech had two good shooting opportunities, which ended in the hands of Karl Darlow and on the post respectively.

In the 64th minute Ziyech was taken off and a minute later Chelsea scored. Reece James picked up a deflected cross just to the right of goal and shot it from a difficult angle into the far corner: 0-1. The 0-2 also came moments later from James’ foot, who this time hit hard just inside the penalty area. After Havertz was put down by Darlow, Chelsea also got a penalty, which was finished by Jorginho with his usual hop: 0-3.

Liverpool – Brighton & Hove Albion 2-2
Jürgen Klopp’s team, which had Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté form a duo in the back, initially seemed on its way to another big victory. After just over twenty minutes of play it was already 2-0. In the fourth minute Jordan Henderson blasted the ball into the left corner after Mohamed Salah’s prep work from the right and twenty minutes later Sadio Mané completed a perfect cross from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain near the far post. It even looked to be 3-0 when the Senegalese blocked a ball from the lingering Robert Sanchez and the leather went into the goal. However, the ball had gone against his arm, the VAR noted, and so the goal was declared invalid.

An important moment, as a shot annex cross by Enock Mwepu disappeared between the crossbar and the fingertips of Alisson Becker a few minutes before the break: 2-1. Brighton, with Joël Veltman in the starting line-up, came to 2-2 after more than an hour of play when Leandro Trossard received the ball from Adam Lallana and he popped it behind Alisson. Brighton took four points in league matches against Liverpool last season and also managed to remain unbeaten against the Merseyside club on Saturday. Brighton remain sixth, but have been waiting for a win since the 2-1 win over Leicester City on September 19: four draws and a defeat.

Manchester City – Crystal Palace 0-2
At City, Nathan Aké remained on the bench, while Riedewald was absent from the visitors due to an injury. After six minutes, Crystal Palace surprisingly took the lead at the Etihad Stadium. A wide pass from Aymeric Laporte was intercepted by Connor Gallagher, who then sent Wilfried Zaha into the depths. The attacker managed to outwit Ederson with a diagonal shot into the right corner: 0-1. The Citizens struggled to create great opportunities in the first act against an ultra-defensive Crystal Palace. With half an hour on the clock, the ball fell at Gabriel Jesus’ feet. Marc Guehi and Tyrick Mitchell, however, threw themselves for the Brazilian’s shot.

On the stroke of half-time, Guardiola’s problems got bigger. Laporte was shown a red card after he prevented the breakthrough Zaha from free passage to Ederson. In the second half City pushed more, despite being on the field with one man less. With an hour on the clock, the home side finally seemed to come alongside. Phil Foden gave a wonderful pass to Jesus, who then hit the target. After the intervention of the VAR, however, Foden turned out to be a millimeter offside. A few minutes later, the creative midfielder found Jesus again. The Brazilian just couldn’t press his header enough this time. City continued to aim for the equalizer, but Crystal Palace managed to close the game just before time. Michael Olise placed wide on Gallagher, who then scored from the inside of the post: 0-2.

Burnley v Brentford 3-1
The home team, with Erik Pieters remaining on the reserve bench for the entire game, had only collected four points from the first nine competition matches and could therefore use a win. That message seemed to have landed well: after four minutes Chris Wood completed a cross from Matthew Lowton for the 1-0. The Clarets saw a goal by Maxwel Cornet disallowed for offside, before Lowton doubled the margin with a good header in the 32nd minute. Cornet got his goal a little later with a nice bang in the intersection. Ten minutes before the end, substitute Saman Ghoddos did something in return for the visitors. Burnley crawl out of the relegation zone with this first win of the season.

Watford – Southampton 0-1
After twenty minutes of play, Southampton managed to break the spell on Vicarage Road. Ché Adams gave Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster no chance by shooting hard into the top right corner from the edge of the box: 0-1. Just before half time, Southampton had the chance to double the margin. Adam Armstrong shot over the bar from close range. The up-and-coming Nathan Redmond was given time and space to lash out halfway through the second half. Foster was transfixed, but saw the shot go over the back line from his defender Craig Cathcart. Watford was still close to the equalizer in the final phase. Ashley Fletcher found room for a shot in the box, but Alex McCarthy delivered the Saints with a clever save the full loot.