#Sports

Bridge crumbles as City burns

By: Saheed Ibrahim
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Chelsea Football Club and Manchester City suffered shocking home defeats in the hands of Leicester City and Crystal Palace respectively. Chelsea, who were champions in 2005, 2006 2010, 2015 and 2017, were defeated by a lone goal at the Stanford Bridge on Saturday. The first half of the encounter ended goalless with Chelsea dominating the first 45minutes. Chelsea came close to breaking the deadlock in the 33rd minute when Eden Hazard’s close range shot hit the woodwork.

The second half was no different from the first but the tone of the match changed when Jamie Vardy slammed a close range shot into the back of Chelsea’s net from a through ball from Maddison to put Leicester in the lead. The two teams made several attempts to change the score-line but all their efforts proved abortive. Chelsea came close to make it 1-1 when Marcos Alonso hit the woodwork in the 90th minutes. The game ended 0-1 in favour of Leicester City. It was the first victory for Leicester City at the Stanford Bridger in 18 years. Chelsea sit in the 4th position while Leicester moved to 9th on the English Premier League table.

Manchester City on the other hand suffered a 2-3 defeat to Crystal Palace at the Etihad stadium.  The defending champion recorded their second loss of the season after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the Stanford Bridge in November. Pep Guardiola’s boys took the lead in the 27th minute of the game after Ilkay Gundogan headed Fabian Delph’ cross into the back of Palace’s net. Judging from City’s previous games this season, they were expected to win the match.

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However, City could not hold on to the lead as Jeffrey Schlupp fired in Palace’s first shot of the match to make it one goal apiece in the 33rd minute. Roy Hodgson’s men took the lead two minutes after when Andros Townsend fired in a 24yard volley into the top right corner of City’s net. The first half of the encounter ended 2-1 in favour of Crystal Palace.

The host was expected to turn the game around in the second half. Guardiola’s boys dominated the possession as expected but Palace extended their lead with a goal from Milivojevic in the 51st minutes through a penalty kick after Walker fouled Meyer in the box. Kun Aguero and Kelvin De Bruyne were brought in from the bench but City could only manage to get a goal back through a long range cross from De Bruyne which ended up in Palace’s net. City later hit the woodwork from Leroy Sane’s freekick and Gabriel Jesus’ header went over the bar in the 90th minute of the game. The match ended 2-3 in favour of the visitor. Manchester City maintain its second position on the table while Crystal Palace now occupy the 14th position.

City’s loss to Crystal Palace gives Liverpool a four-point lead at the top of the league. In other matches played on Saturday Arsenal defeated Burnley at the Emirates 3-1 Newcastle played goalless draw with Fulham and Manchester United walloped Cardiff by five goals to one. Liverpool had already defeated Wolves on Friday night by two goals to nil. Liverpool sit at the top of the table till next year while Fulham sit at the bottom of the table.

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Saheed B. Ibrahim is a Masters student at the University of Ibadan and a volunteer/freelancer at Hope Newspaper.

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Bridge crumbles as City burns

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