Vardy strikes again as Leicester see off Brighton
Arsenal’s Lacazette strikes late to rescue point against Saints
BRIGHTON, England, Nov 23, (RTRS): Jamie Vardy continued his sparkling run in front of goal as Leicester City beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 for their fifth consecutive Premier League victory on Saturday.
After failing to score with their first 11 attempts on goal at the Amex Stadium, Leicester returned from the halftime break to punish Brighton twice and stay second in the table, on 29 points and eight behind Liverpool.
Ayoze Perez, whose three previous league goals for Leicester came in a 9-0 rout of Southampton last month, scored the opener from close range on 64 minutes after Vardy broke through on the right flank.
Vardy then slotted home a penalty at the second attempt for his 12th goal of the league campaign in the 82nd minute.
The English striker’s initial effort was saved but James Maddison’s rebound was chalked off by VAR for encroachment by both teams.
The visitors had controlled possession in the table with 15 points.
Arsenal 2 Southampton 2 Arsenal forward Alexandre Lacazette’s last-gasp strike rescued a point in a 2-2 draw versus in the Premier League at the Emirates on Saturday, a result that extended the Gunners’ winless run to six games in all competitions.
The visitors, who had picked up one point from their previous eight league games, twice led with goals from Danny Ings and James Ward-Prowse and looked on course for their first league win since mid-September.
But Lacazette, who had also cancelled out Southampton’s early opener, pounced late, although the home fans remained unimpressed and boos echoed round the ground at the end.
The draw left Arsenal in seventh place with 18 points from 13 games, while second-bottom Saints have nine.
Ings opened the scoring with his seventh goal in eight games after Ryan Bertrand rolled a quick free-kick into his path after eight minutes. The goal stood even though Arsenal complained that the ball was still moving when the freekick was taken.
Lacazette equalised 10 minutes later but Southampton always looked dangerous and were awarded a spot kick when Ings was dragged back by Kieran Tierney.
Although Bernd Leno saved WardProwse’s shot, the midfielder followed up as Saints scented three points.
It was not to be as Lacazette’s final strike salvaged a draw for the home side but that will hardly ease the pressure on manager Unai Emery, who chose not to celebrate the goal.
It was another poor performance by Arsenal, with Spaniard Emery appearing to concede he made a mistake in fielding a three-man defence by bringing on forward Nicolas Pepe for defender Calum Chambers at halftime.
Although the switch injected some life into Arsenal, they were lucky to escape with a point with Ward-Prowse admitting Saints’ were kicking themselves at not holding on for the win.
“We dominated the game and put Arsenal under pressure,” he said. “But we were not clinical enough in the last 20 minutes to put the game to bed. We’re kicking ourselves.
Norwich 2 Everton 0 Todd Cantwell and Dennis Srbeny scored a brace of rare away goals to give struggling Norwich a 2-0 win at Everton, a result which ended a run of seven games without a win and saw them climb off the bottom of the Premier League table.
Boasting one of the poorest defences in the Premier League and an attack that hadn’t managed an away goal since Teemo Pukki’s strike in a 4-1 loss to Liverpool in their season opener on August 9, Norwich looked to contain an Everton side that had won three of their last five games in all competitions.
After a goalless first half, Everton had
Arsenal’s Alexandre Lacazette (left), and Southampton’s Jan Bednarek battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Southampton at the Emirates Stadium in London on
Nov 23. (AP)
Bournemouth’s Nathan Ake (left), and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Adama Traore battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match
between Bournemouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers, at the Vitality Stadium, in Bournemouth, England on Nov 23. (AP)
over West Ham and it was their first clean sheet on the road since their last visit to Watford in January.
“I reminded the players about discipline and to play on the front foot. Our defence kept us in the game in the first half, we did not look too much in trouble but Nick Pope deserves a lot of credit too,” he said.
Watford defender Adrian Mariappa said he didn’t feel the result was a fair reflection of the match.
“Playing the game it did not feel like a 3-0 defeat,” he said. “In the first half we were quite comfortable and we are disappointed with the goals we conceded today. We need to go back to the drawing board, look back at this game and work in training”.
Wolves 2 Bournemouth 1 Wolverhampton Wanderers surged up to fifth in the Premier League with a 2-1 victory over 10-man Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium .
The visitors dominated the early exchanges and took the early lead with 20 minutes gone as Joao Moutinho curled a sublime free kick beyond Bournemouth goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale for his first goal of the season.
Portuguese midfielder Moutinho created the second with a quick free kick to release Adama Traore, whose low cross was stroked home by Raul Jimenez after half an hour for his 14th goal of the season in all competitions.
Bournemouth’s hopes of a comeback suffered a blow after Simon Francis, who was shown a yellow card for a foul on Diogo Jota, brought down on the Spanish striker again to receive his marching orders with eight minutes still to go before the break.
The result extended Wolves’ unbeaten run to eight matches in the competition – their longest such streak in the top flight since 1974.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe introduced Jefferson Lerma and Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld at the interval to try to gain the hosts a foothold in midfield before defender Steve Cook pulled a goal back with a glancing header from a corner.
But it was too little, too late for Bournemouth as they dropped into the bottom half of the table after just one win from their last seven league matches.