Leaders leave it late, but still win

MANCHESTER City left it late to win. Liverpool left it even later.

The two teams leading the English Premier League each staged late comebacks to win 2-1 against unfavoured opponents yesterday.

The gap between leader Liverpool and second-placed City stayed at six points, but only after some late drama.

For City, the hero was Kyle Walker, setting up one goal and scoring the winner against Southampton in the 86th minute. For Liverpool, it was Sadio Mane with an assist for Andy Robertson in the 87th and a winning header against Aston Villa deep into stoppage time.

“We won [but] Liverpool still won,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “When they win so many games in the last minute, it is because of special character. The first season we won with 100 points [in 2017-18], we won four or five games in the last minute.”

Before Southampton and Aston Villa had their dreams of a surprise win crushed, Bournemouth celebrated a 1-0 victory over a diminished Manchester United.

Liverpool’s players knew how close they came to losing t heir s t atus as t he only unbeaten team in the league, but they kept fighting.

Robertson said his team’s job was to force errors from Villa all the way to the final whistle. His charging run to the far post to meet Mane’s cross certainly wrong-footed Villa’s defence.

“We want to keep going, we want to win every match,” Robertson said. “If we do that or not, that’s another thing. We know we’ve got so many tough games ahead.”

Meanwhile, Christian Pulisic took advantage of another start for Chelsea to score again.

A week after a hat-trick in his first Premier League start since August, the American hit Chelsea’s second goal in a 2-1 win over last-placed Watford.

Chelsea stayed eight points off Liverpool in third.