Error-prone Chelsea go down to West Ham
Tuchel blasts Blues after their 3-2 defeat in London derby; Liverpool move over them in standings
LONDON: Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said his side were making too many costly errors after they lost a rollercoaster London derby 3-2 away at West Ham United on Saturday, putting the league leaders’ title challenge at risk.
Liverpool left it until the dying seconds to see off tenacious Wolves 1-0, with substitute Divock Origi firing home Mohamed Salah’s pass in the 94th minute to take the Reds one point clear of Chelsea. Newcastle scrambled to a 1-0 win over fellow strugglers Burnley to move within three points of safety.
Tuchel was left fuming after Chelsea, leading 1-0, allowed West Ham back into the game when a bad back pass by Jorginho was compounded by goalkeeper Edouard Mendy failing to clear, conceding a penalty under pressure from Jarrod Bowen.
Manuel Lanzini scored from the spot, setting West Ham up for their unlikely win settled in the 87th minute by a cross-cumshot by defender Arthur Masuaku that Mendy failed to deal with. “We are not good enough in the details at the moment,” Tuchel told reporters. “We do too many big mistakes.”
Results: West Ham 3 (Lanzini 40-pen, Bowen 56, Masuaku 87) beat 2 (Silva 28, Mount 44); 1 (Wilson 40) beat 0;
1 (Broja 29) drew with 1 (Maupay 90+8); 0 lost to 1 (Origi 90+4)
Barcelona lost their first match under Xavi Hernandez on Saturday when they fell to Real Betis 1-0 at home just before critical trip to Bayern Munich.
Striker Juanmi Jiménez finished off a well-orchestrated counter-attack to score Betis’ winner in the 79th minute at Camp Nou. Barcelona had won twice and drawn once since Xavi took over as coach from Ronald Koeman. The defeat left the team in seventh place.
Results: La Liga: Sevilla 1 (Ocampos 16) beat Villarreal 0;
0 lost to Real Betis 1 (Juanmi 79); Serie A: AC Milan 2 (Kessie 5, Saelemaekers 18) beat
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