Haaland Sends Man City Top, Chelsea Fightback Frustrates Newcastle

Erling Haaland fired Manchester City to the top of the Premier League by beating West Ham 3-0, while Chelsea fought back to salvage a 2-2 draw at Newcastle on Saturday.

Arsenal can retake the top spot for Christmas when they visit Everton later, but City ramped up the pressure on the Gunners with a seventh consecutive win in all competitions.

The Hammers feared a rout when Haaland smashed home after just five minutes.

Alphonse Areola saved the Norwegian’s first effort before the ball broke kindly for Haaland to fire into the top corner.

Haaland turned provider for City’s second just before halftime as Tijjani Reijnders scored his first goal at the Etihad.

West Ham missed a number of chances to halve the deficit early in the second period as they remain in the relegation zone.

Haaland, by contrast, was ruthless as he netted his 38th goal of the season already for club and country when the ball broke his way 21 minutes from time to move City one point ahead of Arsenal.

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Chelsea remain in fourth as a second-half fightback rescued manager Enzo Maresca from more speculation over his future.

The Italian claimed after last weekend’s win over Everton that he and his players had not received enough support during a difficult run of results.

Maresca was then linked with being Pep Guardiola’s successor at City in recent days.

Chelsea have won just once in their last five league games to see ambitions of a title challenge wilt.

But it could have been even worse for Maresca, as Nick Woltemade’s double put Newcastle 2-0 up in a dominant first half from the Magpies.

A brilliant Reece James free kick brought the Blues back into the game before Joao Pedro pounced on an error from Malick Thiaw to equalise.

Newcastle felt aggrieved as two late appeals for penalties and for James to be sent off were dismissed to leave Eddie Howe’s men languishing in 11th.

“My last week has not been complicated; it has been good. We beat Everton, we beat Cardiff (in the League Cup), and we drew with Newcastle away, so in terms of results, I’m happy,” said Maresca.

“Again, there are things that for sure we can do better, but I think we’re going in the right direction.”

Liverpool will aim to maintain their upturn without Mohamed Salah when the English champions visit Tottenham later.

The Reds are unbeaten in five games after a run of nine defeats in 12.

Salah has departed to lead Egypt’s challenge at the Africa Cup of Nations, putting speculation over his future on the backburner for a few weeks.

Victory for Liverpool would propel them up to fifth.

Spurs begin the game in 13th, with Thomas Frank under pressure to deliver a rare home Premier League win.

Wolves remain without a league win this season and on course to enter the record books as the worst side in Premier League history.

Keane Lewis-Potter scored both goals as Brentford won 2-0 at Molineux to move 10 points clear of the relegation zone.

Burnley ended their seven-game losing streak as Armando Broja’s 90th-minute goal snatched a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth.

The in-demand Antoine Semenyo, who is attracting interest from City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham ahead of the January window, opened the scoring, but the Cherries have now gone eight games without a win.

Sunderland edged up to fifth after a 0-0 draw at Brighton.

AFP