Manchester City's Frank Lampard celebrates after scoring against Sunderland during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Sunderland at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England, Thursday Jan. 1, 2015 (Photo: AP)
For the second time in a week Manchester City threw away a 2-0 lead against a Premier League struggler but this time they hit back as Frank Lampard came off the bench to secure a 3-2 win over Sunderland on Thursday.
After dropping points at home to Burnley on Sunday, City looked to have blown it again in a blizzard of second-half goals but Lampard celebrated extending his loan until the end of the season with the winner three minutes after coming on as a 70th-minute substitute.
The result takes City to 46 points, behind leaders Chelsea who visit Tottenham Hotspur later, on goal difference. Manchester United are third on 37 after a 1-1 draw at Stoke City while Southampton stay fourth on 36 after they beat fifth-placed Arsenal 2-0.
The league's bottom two, Leicester City and Burnley, came from behind to draw 2-2 at Liverpool and 3-3 at Newcastle United respectively while there were also draws for two clubs with new managers as Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion finished level with Aston Villa and West Ham United.
The only winners in the bottom half of the table were Hull City whose 2-0 home success over Everton was a fourth successive defeat for the visitors.
Manchester City were making hard work of breaking down a defensive Sunderland until a superb move set up Yaya Toure to smash them into a 57th-minute lead.
Stevan Jovetic made it 2-0 but once again they let the lead slip as City old boys Jack Rodwell and Adam Johnson, with a penalty, made it 2-2.
Lampard then sailed to the rescue, as he has done so often this season, by heading the winner -- the fourth goal in a crazy eight-minute spell -- to keep the pressure up on former club Chelsea.
"We played against 10 defenders for the whole game," City manager Manuel Pellegrini told the BBC. "Of course I am concerned that again we threw away a two-goal lead but it was different than against Burnley."
Manchester United extended their unbeaten run to 10 games but were somewhat fortunate to escape with a draw after Radamel Falcao cancelled out Ryan Shawcross's second-minute opener.
Southampton are breathing down United's neck after an important win over Arsenal but they were gifted both goals by visiting keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
His ill-judged charge allowed Sadio Mane to shoot into an empty net after 34 minutes and the keeper then sent a second-half clearance straight to Dusan Tadic who fired it straight back past him.
(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
Short link: