LONDON: Perhaps Jose Mourinho should have listened to the
advice from Manchester United’s crosstown rivals. That’s the unbeaten
Manchester City team now 13 points clear at the top of the English
Premier League.
A week ago, City players were filmed in
their dressing room celebrating their latest victory by singing “park
the bus,” mocking the term for Mourinho’s propensity to grind out
results by stifling opponents with an unambitious setup.
That
was just what United required in the closing moments at Leicester City
on Saturday, holding a 2-1 lead secured by Juan Mata’s double. Instead
United imploded. Another lapse in concentration allowed Harry Maguire to
stun United and grab a 2-2 draw for Leicester.
It was
especially costly as City surged to a 17th successive victory with
Sergio Aguero scoring twice in a 4-0 victory over Bournemouth.
Chelsea’s
title defense faltered again in a 0-0 draw at resurgent Everton. The
third-placed champions fell 16 points adrift of City.
Tottenham Hotspur have challenged for the trophy in the last two seasons but they were far from contenders this time.
In
the north London club’s first away win since September, Harry Kane
equalled the record for Premier League goals in a calendar year with a
hat-trick in a 3-0 win at Burnley that lifted them to fifth place.
At
the other end of the standings, Stoke City manager Mark Hughes claimed
only a second victory in nine games. A 3-1 victory over West Bromwich
Albion took Stoke three points clear of the relegation zone to ease the
pressure on Hughes.
Newcastle United ended a run of nine
league games without a win to beat West Ham United 3-2 in an
entertaining encounter at London Stadium and move out of the relegation
zone.
Marko Arnautovic opened the scoring for West Ham
but Henri Saivet, Mo Diame and Christian Atsu were on target for the
Magpies who moved up to 15th with 18 points, a point ahead of West Ham
who slipped down to 17th.
Swansea City remain four
points adrift of safety at the foot of the table after drawing 1-1
against Crystal Palace in their first game since the sacking of manager
Paul Clement. West Brom are only a point above Swansea and they were
joined by Bournemouth in the drop zone.
In other results
around mid-table, Pascal Gross’ fourth goal of the season earned
Brighton and Hove Albion a 1-0 win at home to Watford, while Laurent
Depoitre cancelled out Charlie Austin’s opener as Huddersfield Town drew
1-1 at Southampton. 
Pep Guardiola’s City slickers began their unprecedented
run of domestic league triumphs away to Bournemouth in August when a
97th-minute winner from Raheem Sterling sealed the points.
They
found the south coast side an easier nut to crack this time with
Sterling again on target as City continued to turn the title race into a
procession.
City took a 27th-minute lead when Aguero
met Fernandinho’s cross with a diving header to bring up a century of
goals in front of City’s fans since his 2011 move from Atletico Madrid.
“This side are always trying to find the striker,” Aguero said. “I only have to score the goal!”
The
Argentina striker’s dinked pass set up Sterling to smash home City’s
second goal — and his 16th of the season — in the 53rd minute before
Aguero headed in his second and Danilo completed the rout as
record-breaking City reached Christmas with 55 points and 60 goals.
Hailing
Aguero, Guardiola said: “He is a special player, a legend, and I am so
happy when he plays good and he is scoring goals.”
At
the King Power Stadium, United’s frustration continued as they suffered
another setback after their shock League Cup quarter-final defeat at
second-tier Bristol City. 
Jose Mourinho’s side trailed in the 27th minute when
Jamie Vardy slotted home for Leicester at the culmination of a lightning
counterattack.
Spanish winger Mata equalised with a
cool finish in the 40th and put United ahead with a superb 60th-minute
free-kick but they spurned chances to extend their lead and couldn’t
even exploit Leicester going a man down in the 73rd when substitute
Daniel Amartey was booked for the second time in four minutes.
Then
in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Maguire got ahead of United
defender Chris Smalling at the far post to latch onto Marc Albrighton’s
cross and stab the ball into the net.
Mourinho was fuming.
“I
cannot stop the game and give a team talk,” the United manager said.
“For the last two minutes the players had to immediately adapt, to read
the game, which they didn’t so we had childish decisions in front of
goal and bad decisions as it was not just about the goals we missed, or
dribbling or hitting the post. It was not just about missing chances
with an open goal, it was also about decisions. Easy decisions.”
Chelsea, three points behind United, were left frustrated at a misty Goodison Park after 25 goal attempts came to nothing.
“I think this result is unfair,” said Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte. “Everton deserve credit, but we deserved to win.”
Kane
took his 2017 goal tally to 36 Premier League goals, matching Alan
Shearer’s calendar-year record set 1995. And Tottenham still have
another game to go against Southampton on Tuesday.
“I am
aware I’ve equalled Alan Shearer’s record,” Kane told BT Sport after
his seventh hat-trick of the year in all competitions. “Just going into
this game, I thought I can get a couple and then there’s Southampton to
play.”
Kane’s first came from the penalty spot after
only seven minutes at Turf Moor, with Dele Alli earning himself
pantomime villain status for tumbling under a clumsy challenge from
Kevin Long.
Two further strikes came in the second half as Tottenham quickly recovered from a 4-1 loss to City a week earlier.
“His
contribution not only with goals, with attitude, professional, ethic,
how he works, I think it’s fantastic,” Tottenham manager Mauricio
Pochettino said.
