Vardy hat trick lights up Leicester City
LONDON (Reuters) – Arsenal shoved Chelsea off the top of the table but Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy, with a dazzling hat trick, was the man of the moment on Saturday as the struggling Premier League champions blew aside Manchester City 4-2.
With Chelsea chasing a ninth win in a row when it hosts West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, when third-placed Liverpool also hosts West Ham United, Arsenal seized its chance to take the overall lead by beating Stoke City 3-1 at the Emirates.
The London rivals are now tied on 34 points, and have the same goal difference of 21, but Arsenal edged ahead with 36 goals scored to Chelsea’s 32.
Vardy, hero of last season’s fairytale title triumph, finally ended his 16-match goalscoring drought for the club with a brace in the first 20 minutes at a rainswept King Power Stadium.
Manchester City stayed fourth on 30 points and risk being overtaken by Tottenham Hotspur, which takes on Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday, while Leicester moved up to 14th on 16 points.
On a bumper day for goals, the Premier League saw six home sides score three or more times on a single day for the first time since May 1993.
The goals kept coming at Arsenal, where a rash challenge by Granit Xhaka on Joe Allen gave Charlie Adam the chance to put Stoke ahead from the spot, on the Scot’s 31st birthday, and he despatched it without fuss.
Goals either side of halftime by Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil, who netted with a rare header, put Arsenal back in front against a side that had never taken a point off it at the Emirates.
Substitute Alex Iwobi then ran through to give Arsenal the two-goal victory it needed to top the table.
At the bottom, troubled West Ham United plunged into the drop zone without kicking a ball after Swansea City won 3-0 at home to Sunderland.
Swansea’s goals came courtesy of a Gylfi Sigurdsson penalty in the 50th and a brace from Fernando Llorente.
The win was Swansea’s second under American Bob Bradley, the favorite with British bookmakers to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job, and made it back-toback victories at the Liberty Stadium for his team.
Hull City, which drew 3-3 at home to Crystal Palace, is second from bottom and also on 12 points.
Burnley scored twice in the space of three first-half minutes to beat Bournemouth 3-2 at Turf Moor in the first Premier League meeting between the sides, ending a run of three defeats in a row for the home side.
In the early kick off, Watford beat Everton by the same scoreline for its first victory over the Merseyside team since 1987 in any competition.