City joint top after five-goal Spurs sink Chelsea

LONDON (Reuters) - Chelsea and Manchester City ended a memorable first day of 2015 locked together at the top of the Premier League as City's dramatic 3-2 win over Sunderland was followed by a shock 5-3 defeat for Chelsea at Tottenham Hotspur.

City joint top after five-goal Spurs sink Chelsea

(Reuters)





Chelsea, previously beaten only once this season, were blown away by their effervescent London rivals with inspired front man Harry Kane scoring twice and setting up two more goals.

To rub in the pain for Chelsea fans it was former hero Frank Lampard who came off the bench to give City their victory after they had thrown away a 2-0 lead for the second time in a week.

When the dust settled on a day of drama that underlined why the Premier League remains the most watched domestic competition in the world, City and Chelsea were on 46 points from 20 games with an identical goal difference of plus-25 having both scored 44 goals.

Manchester United are third on 37 points after a 1-1 draw at Stoke City, Southampton occupy fourth spot on 36 after beating Arsenal 2-0, with Spurs up to fifth on 34.

Diego Costa put Chelsea ahead but rampant Spurs surged back with goals by Kane, Danny Rose and an Andros Townsend penalty to lead 3-1 at halftime.

Kane fired his second goal seven minutes after the restart and though Eden Hazard pulled one back, Nacer Chadli completed a joyous day for a hugely impressive Spurs with the fifth goal 12 minutes from time before John Terry got a late third for Chelsea.

The result completed a remarkable change in fortunes for Man City who, after dropping points at home to Burnley on Sunday, again allowed a 2-0 lead to slip in a blizzard of second-half goals.





LAMPARD WINNER

Yaya Toure and Stevan Jovetic put them 2-0 up before 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 -- three minutes after coming on as a 70th-minute substitute.

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.

There were also draws for two clubs with new managers as Crystal Palace ended 0-0 with Aston Villa and West Bromwich Albion finished 1-1 with 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.





(Editing by Tony Jimenez)


Share

3 min read

Published

Updated

Source: Reuters


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world