MANCHESTER: The records keep coming for Erling Haaland at Manchester City. The losses are mounting for Frank Lampard at Chelsea.City’s 3-1 win over Leicester on Saturday, which moved the defending champions three points behind Premier League leader Arsenal, was inevitably propelled by Haaland even though the prolific striker had just 45 minutes on the field.By the time he was substituted at halftime, the Norway international had scored twice — one from the penalty spot, another a clipped finish following Kevin De Bruyne’s through ball — to move to 32 league goals for the season.That left Haaland tied with Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah for the most goals in a 38-game Premier League season. Salah’s haul came in the 2017-18 campaign.Haaland will surely go beyond that, and also is on course to break the record for a 42-game campaign, which stands at 34 goals and is jointly held by Andy Cole (at Newcastle in 1993-94) and Alan Shearer (at Blackburn in ’94-95).John Stones was the other scorer for City, which have won 10 straight games in all competitions and is piling the pressure on Arsenal in a title race that looks destined to go to the final weekend.Arsenal visit West Ham on Sunday.While there’s so much still to play for at the top of the league, Chelsea’s woeful campaign is finishing with barely a whimper as Lampard, the interim manager, fails to get anything out of a squad assembled at such great expense.A 2-1 home loss to Brighton was a third straight defeat for Lampard since he came in as the replacement for the fired Graham Potter until the end of the season. Chelsea are languishing in 11th place with seven league games remaining.The match at Stamford Bridge came between games against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals. After a 2-0 loss in Spain on Wednesday, Chelsea host the defending champions on Tuesday.TOP-FOUR RACEThe race for Champions League qualification might have two more teams involved.One of them is Brighton, which are now just seven points off the top four with a game in hand, and another is Aston Villa, which overwhelmed third-place Newcastle 3-0 after a double by Ollie Watkins.Villa, which have won seven of their last eight games, are in sixth place and only six points behind Newcastle and fourth-place Manchester United.Fifth-place Tottenham’s hopes were hurt after a 3-2 loss to relegation-threatened Bournemouth, which scored its winner in stoppage time. Spurs are three points above Villa and three behind Newcastle and Man United.RELEGATION FIGHTAt the other end of the standings, last-place Southampton are running out of time to preserve their top-flight status after a 2-0 home loss to Crystal Palace, which have won three in a row under interim manager Roy Hodgson.Southampton are four points from safety and have seven games remaining.Everton are only out of the bottom three on goal difference after losing at home to Fulham 3-1.Wolves moved seven points clear of trouble by beating Brentford 2-0 at home.
Saturday, December 28, 2024