Man City charge into Christmas with 17th successive win

Reuters , Saturday 23 Dec 2017

City
Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City vs AFC Bournemouth - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - December 23, 2017 Manchester City's Sergio Aguero celebrates scoring their first goal with team mates Reuters

 Premier League leaders Manchester City extended their winning sequence to 17 with a 4-0 victory over Bournemouth on Saturday after champions Chelsea suffered a goalless stalemate at Everton to fall even further adrift.

Pep Guardiola's side began their extraordinary run away to Bournemouth in late summer with 97th-minute winner from Raheem Sterling but found the south coast side an easier nut to crack this time with Sterling again on target.

Sergio Aguero also scored twice and Danilo completed the rout as record-breaking City reached Christmas with 55 points and 60 goals.

They are 14 points ahead of Manchester United who play their 19th game of the season later at Leicester City.

Chelsea are two points further back with 39 points, a total that in an ordinary season would have put them in the title mix for Christmas, but they were left frustrated at a misty Goodison Park after 25 goal attempts came to nothing.

"I think we dominated the game and lots of chances to score. I think it is unfair result. Everton deserve credit but we deserve to win," Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, deprived of suspended top scorer Alvaro Morata, said.

At the other end of the table Newcastle United ended a run of nine league games without a win to beat West Ham United 3-2 at the London Stadium and move out of the relegation zone.

Marko Arnautovic opened the scoring for West Ham but Henri Saivet, Mo Diame and Christian Atsu were on target for the Magpies who moved up to 15th with 18 points, a point ahead of West Ham who slipped down to 17th.

Stoke City arrested their worrying slide down the table to beat second-from-bottom West Bromwich Albion 3-1 while bottom club Swansea City, who sacked manager Paul Clement this week, drew 1-1 at home to Crystal Palace.

Bournemouth joined West Brom and Swansea in the drop zone.

Brighton and Hove Albion eased their relegation fears as Pascal Gross scored the only goal against Watford to give the Seagulls a first win in eight games. Watford have now lost four in a row and five of their last six.

Huddersfield Town remained comfortably in mid-table as they came from a goal down to draw 1-1 at Southampton.

Sixth-placed Burnley take on seventh-placed Tottenham Hotspur later on Saturday.

(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)

Short link: