It was a festival of goals in the English Premier League yesterday, as 24 goals were recorded in seven matches. The number excluded the late evening clashes between Brighton versus Arsenal and Watford against Chelsea.
Paul Pogba scored twice as Manchester United made it back-to-back wins under caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a stylish victory over the Premier League’s bottom side Huddersfield.
Former United striker Solskjaer was appointed last week after the sacking of Jose Mourinho and he followed up the 5-1 thrashing of Cardiff with another win in his first game in charge at Old Trafford.
Nemanja Matic scored the opener, poking in from close range after Victor Lindelof’s header was saved by Jonas Lossl with the Huddersfield goalkeeper also keeping out efforts from Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.
Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to six points by beating Newcastle – because Manchester City, who started the day as their nearest challengers, lost at Leicester City.
Goals by Dejan Lovren, Mohamed Salah from the penalty spot, Xherdan Shaqiri and substitute Fabinho, ensured Jurgen Klopp’s will start 2019 at the top of the table.
Manchester City suffered their second successive defeat as Ricardo Pereira’s spectacular late strike gave Leicester a win and dropped Pep Guardiola’s side down to third.
Ricardo blasted in a winner from the edge of the penalty area in the 81st minute after Leroy Sane’s weak header to leave Manchester City seven points behind leaders Liverpool and take them below Tottenham as well.
The visitors had taken a 14th-minute lead when they took advantage of poor defending from the home side as Sergio Aguero released Bernardo Silva and he calmly slotted past Kasper Schmeichel.
Tottenham moved into second place in the Premier League table as they ruthlessly saw off Bournemouth to record a fifth league win in a row.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side scored their 11th goal in four days to move above Manchester City, who were beaten at Leicester, and remain six points behind leaders Liverpool.
Right-back Kyle Walker-Peters put in a superb performance as he created all three of Spurs’ first-half goals.
The 21-year-old teed up Christian Eriksen to open the scoring with a deflected effort, before Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura strikes put the hosts firmly in control.
Harry Kane added a fourth from a clever Eriksen pass and Son grabbed his second after a scramble in the Bournemouth box.
Three first-half goals helped Everton return to winning ways as they thumped lowly Burnley at Turf Moor.
Goals from Yerry Mina, Lucas Digne and Gylfi Sigurdsson saw the Toffees, who went into the game on the back of two consecutive defeats, go 3-0 up after 22 minutes.
