Manchester City reduce the gap at the top
Champions Manchester City ob‐ tained a slender but precious at Stamford Bridge to go just five points behind leaders Arsenal, the latter dropped two points on Tuesday at home against third placed Newcastle United.
It was a tight encounter yester‐ day with both going close on sev‐ eral occassions.
Both sides hit the post, Chelsea in the first half and Manchester City on the resumption.
After the break Manchester City had the upperhand puishing the Blues in their own area.
Ake hit the post for City and Pep Guardiola’s substitutions proved to be decisive.
On the hour Guardiola intro‐ duced Grealish and Mahrez and three minutes later the wo com‐ bined to score the winner with Grealish crossing from the left with Mahrez tapping in from close range.
United‑Everton in FA Cup
The focus switches from the Premier League to the FA Cup as Manchester United goes for a sev‐ enth straight win in all competi‐ tions in a home match against struggling Everton to kick off the third round. A defeat for Everton at Old Trafford would pile the pressure on manager Frank Lam‐ pard, whose future looks uncer‐ tain after just one win in 11 games since Oct. 1. The most re‐ cent setback was a 4‐1 home loss to Brighton in the league on Tues‐ day, after which there were loud jeers from fans. United is on a roll under Erik ten Hag, having climbed into the league top four and the quarterfinals of the Eng‐ lish League Cup. The third round of the FA Cup is when the teams from England's top two divisions join the famous old competition.
SPAIN
Last‐placed Elche hosts Celta Vigo looking to pick up its first win of the season in the league. Elche is the only team yet to win in the competition after 15 matches, and it is coming off elim‐ ination against third‐division club Ceuta in the Copa del Rey. It will face a Celta team that also failed to advance in the round of 32 of the Copa, though it lost to fellow first‐division club Espanyol. Celta hasn't won in eight league matches and sits just outside the relegation zone in 17th place. Elche is last with four points, eight points behind second‐to‐ last Cádiz.
PSG rests star forwards
Paris Saint‐Germain will be without star forwards Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi for a French Cup match at third‐tier Châteauroux in the round of 64. The star trio are being rested by PSG, which has won the cup a record 14 times but was knocked out in the round of 16 last season. It would be a mas‐ sive upset if PSG loses at Château‐ roux, which sits in 14th place in its division. Among the other cup matches, Strasbourg hosts fellow struggler Angers in an all‐first di‐ vision game and Montpellier trav‐ els to face second‐tier Pau.