Battle of the blues; Mbappe enjoys first hat-trick in Real Madrid colours as Leverkusen’s title defence hits roadblock
Battle of the blues; Mbappe enjoys first hat-trick in Real Madrid colours as Leverkusen’s title defence hits roadblock
Manchester City’s new centre-back, Abdukodir Khusanov, had a torrid start to his life in Manchester, making an early mistake which led to the opening goal. In the third minute, Khusanov tried to head the ball back to his keeper Ederson but hardly made contact, allowing Jackson to pounce on the loose ball and squaring it to Noni Madueke, who slotted the ball inside the open net.
Pep Guardiola’s men got their equaliser in the 42nd minute through Josko Gvardiol, who lashed the ball inside an open net after Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez made the initial save off a Matheus Nunes shot.
Sanchez, who couldn’t do much to save the first goal, turned his own enemy to concede the second. In the 68th minute, in a horrible lapse of judgement, he rushed off his line to the edge of his box to clear the ball. Quickly realising his error, Sanchez tried to make it back, but it was too late, as Erling Haaland had already lobbed the ball over his head to grab the lead.
Phil Foden scored City’s third in the 87th minute to end any hopes of a Chelsea comeback.
Title-favourite Liverpool thumped Ipswich Town 4-1, with Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai getting on the scoresheet.
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal edged past Wolverhampton Wanderers courtesy of a solitary strike by Riccardo Calafiori in a match which saw two red cards being shown to Myles Lewis-Skelley and Joao Gomes.
Manchester United enjoyed a stroke of luck in its 1-0 win against Fulham, where Lisandro Martinez’s deflected shot rattled the net for three points to Ruben Amorim’s men.
The high-flying Nottingham Forest, challenging for a Champions League spot next season, hit an obstacle in Bournemouth, which clinched a 5-0 win, including a hat-trick from Dango Ouattara.
It was a terrible gameweek for Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecolglou as his team succumbed to a 2-1 loss against Leicester City.
Liverpool stays top with 53 points, with a game in hand over second-placed Arsenal, which is on 47. Nottingham Forest and Manchester City occupy third and fourth places with 44 and 41 points, respectively. Chelsea is sixth with 40 while Man United stays 12th with 29 points. Tottenham remains 15th with 24 points.
It was a memorable gameweek for Kylian Mbappe, as the Frenchman grabbed his first hat-trick for Real Madrid in its 3-0 win against Valladolid. Opening the scoring in the 30th minute, the France captain added to his tally in the 57th minute and in the first minute of second-half additional time with a well-converted penalty.
As one part of Madrid celebrated, the other remained frustrated as Atletico played out a 1-1 draw against Villarreal. Gerard Moreno gave Villarreal the lead from the spot in the 29th minute, while Samuel Lino grabbed the equaliser in the 58th minute to spare the blushes for Diego Simeone’s men.
But the team that stole the show was undoubtedly Hansi Flick’s Barcelona, which dished out a supreme 90 minutes of attacking football, earning it a 7-1 win against Valencia. The Catalans had five different scorers – Frenkie De Jong, Ferran Torres, Raphinha, Robert Lewandowski and Fermin Lopez, with Lopez grabbing a brace. Valencia centre-back Cear Tarrega scored an own goal for Barca’s seventh. Hugo Duro was the solitary scorer for Los Che.
Real Madrid tops the standings with 49 points, while city rival Atletico stays second with 45. Barcelona occupies third place with 42 while Athletic Bilbao, which played out a goalless draw against Leganes, stays fourth with 40 points.
Bayern Munich shrugged off its shock midweek defeat to Feyenoord in the Champions League and beat SC Freiburg 2-1 for its fifth win on the trot in the league. Harry Kane bagged his 17th goal of the campaign, and defender Kim Min-jae nodded in the winner as the Bavarians took a healthy six-point lead at the top of the table.
Second-placed Bayer Leverkusen’s title defence took a big hit after it squandered a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with RB Leipzig. David Raum initiated the comeback in the closing minutes of the first half after Patrik Schick and Aleix Garcia gave the visitor the lead. The equaliser, however, came through Leverkusen defender Edmond Tapsoba, who headed the ball into his own net to gift Leipzig one point.
Borussia Dortmund too, wasted a two-goal lead and was held to a draw by Werder Bremen in its first game after the sacking of manager Nuri Sahin. The result leaves the Black and Yellow reeling in 11th place on the table, with 26 points from 19 games.
Eintracht Frankfurt began life without top scorer Omar Marmoush with a 2-2 draw against Hoffenheim, keeping itself third in the table with 37 points, 11 adrift of leader Bayern.
Juventus’ unbeaten record in the league this season was snapped by Napoli, which came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win. On-loan striker Randal Kolo Muani gave Juve the lead on his debut, but Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa cancelled it while veteran Romelu Lukaku converted from the spot to hand Napoli all three points. The result extended Napoli’s winning streak in the league to seven and helped it top the table with 53 points from 22 games, while Juventus remains fifth with 37.
However, Antonio Conte’s men will be wary of defending champion Inter Milan, which brushed aside Lecce 4-0. With the win, Inter cut Napoli’s lead down to three points, having played a game less.
League top-scorer Mateo Retegui helped Atalanta stay in third and touching distance of the top two after scoring a brace in its 2-1 comeback win against Como.
AC Milan staged a dramatic fightback against struggling Parma to win 3-2. Christian Pulisic scored a penalty, while Tijjani Reijnders and Samuel Chukwueze scored in stoppage-time to lift the Italian Super Cup champion to seventh in the table, just outside the European spots.
French giant Paris Saint-Germain kept its unbeaten streak in the league alive after being held to a 1-1 draw by Stade de Reims. New signing Khvicha Kvaratskhelia jumped straight into action and assisted Ousmane Dembele’s goal, which was cancelled out nine minutes later by Keito Nakamura.
Olympique de Marseille failed to capitalise on PSG dropping points and fell to a 0-2 defeat against OGC Nice. Roberto De Zerbi’s side is second on the table with 37 points from 19 games, 10 behind leader PSG.
Nice, on the other hand, managed to climb into the top four with the win and sits one point behind AS Monaco, which beat Stade Rennais 3-2 to maintain the third spot on the table.
All standings in the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue are considered till January 27*
