Hazard, Coutinho shine for Chelsea, Liverpool
london — Eden Hazard and Philippe Coutinho produced stunning individual displays to inspire impressive wins for Chelsea and Liverpool in the English Premier League as the teams took a chunk into their deficit to runaway leader Manchester City on Saturday.
Hazard scored twice and tormented Newcastle throughout in Chelsea’s 3-1 come-from-behind win at Stamford Bridge.
Coutinho, another of the league’s star No. 10s, scored one goal and set up three others as Liverpool routed Brighton 5-1 to continue its prolific form away from home this season.
Of the genuine contenders for the Champions League positions, Tottenham was the only one to slip up — again — after drawing 1-1 at Watford. Spurs, though, played most of the second half a man down after Davinson Sanchez’s straight red card for elbowing.
Chelsea moved level on points Brighton Chelsea Everton Leicester Stoke Watford West Brom 1 3 2 1 2 1 0 Liverpool Newcastle Huddersfield Burnley Swansea Tottenham Palace 5 1 0 0 1 1 0 with United, while Liverpool was three points further back.
In other results, Everton began life under new manager Sam Allardyce with a 2-0 win over Huddersfield. Alan Pardew also got a job this week, at West Bromwich Albion, but his team only drew 0-0 at home to Crystal Palace. Leicester beat Burnley 1-0 and Stoke came from behind to win 2-1 at home to Swansea, which drops to last place.
The Chelsea response was immediate. Twice they went close before inevitable equaliser finally arrived after 20 minutes. Alvaro Morata contested a high ball and it bounced off him and dropped towards Hazard, who controlled his half-volley to perfection, driving the ball into the ground and bouncing it into the far corner of the net.
That goal settled any anxiety that had been floating around Stamford Bridge and it came as no surprise when the home side took the lead just after the half-hour.
Matt Ritchie’s clearing header was neither strong, nor decisive and fell straight to Victor Moses who quickly drilled over a cross that Morata merely had to divert home with his head.
Danny Drinkwater, making only his second Chelsea start in the Premier League, was the next to go close with a shot which drifted away from the far post.
The second half began as quietly as the first, with only a deflected Hazard shot raising excitement levels among the crowd above the soporific.
That was until the 56th minute when the Belgian danced through the centre of the Newcastle defence only to stumble just he approached Karl Darlow in the Newcastle goal.
At the other end, Ayoze Perez sent a bouncing shot just wide of the post, his last act before being replaced by Isaac Hayden.
If anyone was going to add to the scoreboard, however, it was going to be Hazard. Prepared to drift all over the pitch in search of the ball, he picked it up in his own half after 69 minutes and had Newcastle defenders backpedalling and afraid to tackle lest he skip his way past them.
A one-two with Drinkwater ended with the ball agonisingly out of his reach.
When his second goal came, it was from the penalty spot, impudently chipping the ball beyond Darlow after Ritchie had brought down Moses. — AP/AFP
“It’s a pretty good draw compared to other groups, we have the status of favourites to assume.” Hugo Lloris “I’m certainly not scared.” Joachim Loew