Domestic Leagues
Premier League – Round Twenty
Round 20
January 2, 2017
Middlesbrough 0-0 Leicester City
A goalless draw allowed Leicester City to maintain a two point gap between themselves and newly promoted Middlesbrough.
Everton 3-0 Southampton
Enner Valencia 73’
Leighton Baines 81(pen)
Romelu Lukaku 89’
In their first meeting, Southampton reminded Ronald Koeman what he was missing with a ‘1-0’ victory. This time around, Koeman reminded Southampton what they were missing after his Everton side left it late and grabbed a ‘3-0’ home victory over Southampton.
It was a third consecutive defeat for Southampton, which meant they’ve lost all the matches played in the holiday period.
Everton on the other hand have managed to avoid defeat in all three league matches matches in the holiday period. A surprise draw against Hull City stopped Everton from making it three consecutive league victories.
Manchester City 2-1 Burnley
Gael Clichy 58’ Ben Mee 70’
Sergio Aguero 62’
Fernandinho gets another red card, his third of the season.
A 10-man Manchester City had enough in the tank to bounce back from their defeat to Liverpool and defeat newly-promoted Burnley to get an important home victory.
Sunderland 2-2 Liverpool
Jermain Defoe 25’(pen) 84’(pen) Daniel Sturridge 19’
Sadio Mane 72’
Sunderland might just have given Chelsea an opportunity to stretch their lead at the top of the league table.
Jermain Defoe scored a penalty in each half to cancel out a Liverpool goal. A ‘2-2’ draw meant a very valuable point gained by Sunderland and a very valuable points dropped by Liverpool.
Sunderland remains in the drop zone despite this point.
West Bromwich Albion 3-1 Hull City
Chris Brunt 49’ Robert Snodgrass 21’
Gareth McAuley 62’
James Morrison 73’
Hull City went nine games without victory after failing to hold on to an early lead against West Bromwich Albion.
West Brom scored three goals in the second half to get a consecutive league victory. A victory that should help their cause in finishing in the top half of the league table.
West Ham United 0-2 Manchester United
Juan Mata 63’
Zlatan Ibrahimovic 78’
Zlatan Ibrahimovic scores another goal while Manchester United win another match.
A ‘10-man’ West Ham United side did their best to avoid a home defeat, but an inform Manchester United played well enough to deserve the points.
January 3, 2017
AFC Bournemouth 3-3 Arsenal
Charlie Daniels 16’ Alexis Sanchez 70’
Callum Wilson 21’(pen) Lucas Perez 75’
Ryan Fraser 58’ Olivier Giroud 90’+3’
It would be memorable point for Arsenal, but the points dropped might be costly.
Unlike Bournemouth, a victory for Arsenal in this fixture would have changed their poistion on the league table.
The lack of adequate rest might be the reason for the poor start to the match for Arsenal. With Liverpool dropping points to Sunderland, this was an opportunity to Arsenal to move in a point away from second place.
It wasn’t the win we wanted – but what a second-half comeback that was
Thank you, as ever, for getting behind us #WeAreTheArsenal pic.twitter.com/irmYPp5iyZ
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) January 3, 2017
Arsenal came undid the work of AFC Bournemouth in the final quarter of this fixture. Three goals down and heading into the final twenty minutes of regulation time, there odds of Arsenal securing anything away at Bournemouth was negligible.
The equalizing goal for Arsenal came against a 10-man Bournemouth side after Simon Francis was sent off for a reckless tackle.
Despite the numerical advantange, there was very little doubt that Arsenal was going to get something out of the fixture after cutting Bournemouth’s three goal lead down to one.
Crystal Palace 1-2 Swansea City
Wilfried Zaha 83’ Alfie Mawson 42’
Angel Rangel 88’
It would have been nice to have a repeat of Swansea City’s dramatic ‘5-4’ victory over Crystal Palace earlier this season.
Swansea City once again came from a losing position to beat Crystal Palace with a late goal.
Wilfried Zaha amazing equalizer for Crystal Palace was not enough to give the team a victory in front of the home crowd.
The result for Swansea City ended a four consecutive league defeats while extending Crystal Palace to six league matches without a victory.(4L, 2D)
Stoke City 2-0 Watford
Ryan Shawcross 45’+4’
Peter Crouch 49’
After five winless matches, Stoke City ended the bad streak with a home victory over Watford.
The victory allowed Stoke to leap over Watford in the league standings.
January 4, 2017
Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Chelsea
Dele Alli 45’+1’, 54’
Chelsea ends their winning streak at 13. A victory away from setting a league record.
Dele Alli headed Tottenham Hotspur to a home victory that ended Chelsea’s winning streak and denied Chelsea the opportunity to set a new league record for consecutive victories.
Mauricio was delighted with a number of the characteristics we showed during tonight’s fine win at White Hart Lane… ? #COYS pic.twitter.com/4RdIubEHe8
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 4, 2017
For the third match in a row, Dele Alli scored a brace to help Tottenham Hotspur secure the maximum points.
Chelsea remains on top of the league with a 5-point gap between themselves and second-place Liverpool.