Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea on Saturday continued to pile pressure on other Premier League contenders with separate 2-0 victories against Manchester City and Newcastle United respectively.
Defeating Manchester City 2-0 at the Tottenham Stadium is a huge statement from Jose Mourinho’s men.
Frank Lampard’s men were also in cruise control at St James Park and got the job done to move second behind Spurs.
π Of course you want to watch it again… #THFC βͺοΈ #COYS pic.twitter.com/KT1Sz0Gt93
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) November 21, 2020
Spurs striker, Heung-Min Son continued from where he stopped last month that got him the October Player of the Month award, opening the goal for the hosts, before Giovani Le Celso scored the second to take the game beyond Pep Guardiola’s men. This is not a good congratulatory message to the Spanish tactician, who recently signed a two-year extension with the club.
Chelsea scored in each half to secure the second spot on the log with goals being from Tammy Abraham and Rico Fernadez’s own goal. The Blues have now secured a fifth successive victory in all competitions.
Tottenham Hotspurs v Manchester City highlights
Within five minutes, the South Korean coolly finished Tanguy Ndombele’s pass to give them the lead.
Manchester City’s first-half goal was ruled out by VAR for a handball by Gabriel Jesus after Aymeric Laporte’s finish.
Expectedly, City starts to enjoy greater possession but Spurs were fiercely drilled and resilient.
All that concerns the hosts was the maximum points. They eventually nailed it to prove that they were clinical in the 65th minute after a dream substitution from Mourinho, Giovani lo Celso beat Ederson with a low finish from another Harry Kane pass 35 seconds after coming on for Tanguy Ndombele.
Newcastle United v Chelsea highlight
Chelsea got into the lead via Fernandez’s own goal after the Argentine defender poked the ball over his own line while under pressure from Ben Chilwell.
As they showed great quality, Newcastle keeper Karl Darlow producing excellent saves to deny the excellent Timo Werner as well as a close-range Abraham header.
π§π΅πΏπ²π² π½πΌπΆπ»ππ on the road! π#NEWCHE pic.twitter.com/hXBmFuEwLd
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 21, 2020
But the German won’t be denied this time around after running through the Newcastle defence to release the final pass for Abraham who made no mistake to put the game to bed.
Newcastle also had chances through Isaac Hayden and Joelinton, while Sean Longstaff hit the bar for the hosts towards the end.
Liverpool could help Chelsea and Tottenham keep Premier League top spots
Meanwhile, both clubs could still come down the table depending on the results between Liverpool and Leicester that will be facing each other on Sunday.
A win for the Foxes that has been on a great run will take them back to the top and a point better than Spurs. Brendan Rodgers will want to take his chances against a Liverpool side that is currently having a defence crisis due to injuries and the absence of Mohammed Salah due to COVID-19 positive result, while a draw helps both Chelsea and Spurs maintain those spots.
From the look of things, Liverpool won’t want to give up especially when at home. In an event of a draw, Chelsea and Spurs keep those spots going into another week.
Can they be referred to as title contenders? the answer is yes because they have the talents to get the title.
But it’s too early as the winner of the titles is not even decided in January as Premier League has just witnessed nine weeks of actions, with some still having outstanding games.
But can they be called true contenders? You can drop your comment below.
