City crush Spurs too

Football in the UK

Raheem Sterling scored twice as Manchester City swept to a 41 victory over Tottenham yesterday that sent the runaway Premier League leaders 14 points clear.

Pep Guardiola's side reeled off a top-flight, record-extending 16th successive victory with a typically electrifying display while overcoming rough treatment by the visitors.

Kevin De Bruyne was kicked around the pitch but responded by doubling City's lead — after Ilkay Gundogan's first-half header — and then starting the move that led to the first of Sterling's two goals.

Sterling compounded Tottenham's misery in the 90th minute when he rounded goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to tap in the fourth. City only switched off once the result was completely beyond doubt, allowing Christian Eriksen to score a stoppage-time consolation.

But this was humiliating for a Tottenham side which beat European champion Real Madrid in the Champions League group stage. Having finished above City in the previous two seasons, last season's Premier League runners-up are now in seventh place.

Before the season has even reached its halfway point, Tottenham is 21 points behind City and is closer to the relegation zone than the summit.

Mesut Ozil scored with a fine strike as Arsenal toiled to a 1-0 victory over struggling Newcastle yesterday.

The only goal came in the 23rd minute. A strike from Alexis Sanchez was blocked by DeAndre Yedlin with the headed clearance then dropping to Ozil, whose controlled volley was weighted perfectly to beat goalkeeper Rob Elliot.

Ozil came close to adding a second soon after, while Granit Xhaka and Sanchez both flashed low efforts wide as the hosts enjoyed domination without being able to build on their lead.

The tight victory was met with incredulity from pockets of the home fans, with Sanchez and the recalled Alexandre Lacazette struggling to make an impact once again.

Marcos Alonso's pinpoint freekick gave Chelsea a 1-0 victory over Southampton.

The Spanish full-back curled a stunning 30-yard (meter) effort past goalkeeper Fraser Forster and into the net in first-half stoppage time.

The champions could have added to their tally but Pedro Rodriguez hit a post and Eden Hazard had a goal disallowed for offside.

Chelsea, which lost last Saturday at West Ham, is third. Southampton dropped to 12th in the 20-team standings.

Christian Benteke ended a 13game goal drought for Crystal Palace in a 3-0 victory at Leicester in the Premier League yesterday.

The Belgium striker headed in Andros Townsend's cross in the 19th minute to score his first goal since the penultimate game of last season in May. It came a week after Benteke defied team orders by taking — and missing — a penalty in a draw with Bournemouth.

Benteke made further amends by setting up Wilfried Zaha for Palace's second in the 40th minute.

Bakary Sako added a third goal in stoppage time as Roy Hodgson's Palace extended its un- beaten run to seven games.

Burnley wasted its chance to break into the Premier League's top four and Brighton's Glenn Murray missed a first-half penalty in a 0-0 draw.

Murray was taken down by James Tarkowski in the box. He got up to send his attempt clear over the crossbar in the 36th minute in Brighton's best chance at claiming its first victory since November 4.

Burnley's Chris Wood, who spent the 2010-11 season on loan at Brighton, appeared to have scored in the 61st. But his goal — a rebound after an attempt by Scott Arfield — was disallowed as he was ruled to have been offside.

Aaron Mooy scored twice as Huddersfield enjoyed only its second away win of the Premier League season with a 4-1 victory at Watford yesterday.

Elias Kachunga and Mooy put Huddersfield two goals ahead at Vicarage Road before Watford's Troy Deeney was sent off in the 33rd minute for a dangerous lunge on Colin Quaner.

Laurent Depoitre added a third for the visitors shortly after halftime only for Watford to threaten a comeback. Huddersfield's Jonathan Hogg was shown a second yellow card on the hour mark and Abdoulaye Doucoure reduced the deficit with a sweet half-volley in the 68th.

But Doucoure fouled Depoitre in the box late on and Mooy converted from the penalty spot.

Huddersfield, which had not scored an away goal since the opening weekend, moved up to 11th.

Ninth-place Watford has now lost three league games in a row and four of its last five.

PW D L F A Pts Man City 18 17 1 0 56 12 52 Man United 17 12 2 3 37 11 38 Chelsea 18 12 2 4 32 14 38 Arsenal 18 10 3 5 31 20 33 Burnley 18 9 5 4 16 12 32 Liverpool 17 8 7 2 34 20 31 Tottenham 18 9 4 5 31 18 31 Leicester 18 7 5 6 27 26 26 Watford 18 6 4 8 27 33 22 Everton 17 6 4 7 21 29 22 Huddersfield 18 6 3 9 16 30 21 Southampton 18 4 6 8 17 24 18 Brighton 18 4 6 8 14 23 18 Crystal Palace 18 4 5 9 15 28 17 West Ham 18 4 5 9 17 32 17 Bournemouth 17 4 4 9 15 20 16 Stoke 18 4 4 10 19 39 16 Newcastle 18 4 3 11 16 27 15 West Brom 17 2 8 7 12 22 14 Swansea 17 3 3 11 9 22 12

Premier League

Yesterday Today Hearts-Celtic Celtic Aberdeen Rangers Hibernian Hearts St Johnstone Motherwell Kilmarnock Hamilton Dundee FC Ross County Partick PW D L F A Pts 17 12 5 0 41 11 41 19 12 3 4 32 21 39 19 11 3 5 38 23 36 19 8 6 5 28 25 30 18 6 6 6 17 19 24 18 7 3 8 20 27 24 18 7 2 9 24 26 23 19 5 7 7 22 26 22 19 5 5 9 27 32 20 19 5 3 11 20 29 18 19 4 4 11 19 31 16 18 3 5 10 16 34 14

PW D L F A Pts Wolves 22 16 3 3 42 17 51 Cardiff 22 14 5 3 33 16 47 Bristol City 22 12 7 3 36 23 43 Derby 22 12 5 5 35 21 41 Aston Villa 22 10 7 5 29 20 37 Sheffield Utd 22 12 1 9 34 27 37 Leeds 22 11 3 8 34 26 36 Ipswich 22 11 2 9 37 32 35 Preston 22 9 8 5 26 22 35 M’brough 22 9 5 8 28 22 32 Nottingham 22 10 0 12 32 37 30 Fulham 22 7 8 7 27 28 29 Brentford 22 6 10 6 33 30 28 Reading 22 7 6 9 28 28 27 Sheffield W 22 6 9 7 26 27 27 Norwich 22 7 6 9 21 28 27 Millwall 22 6 8 8 24 22 26 QPR 22 6 7 9 25 33 25 Hull City 22 5 7 10 37 40 22 Barnsley 22 5 6 11 24 34 21 Sunderland 22 3 9 10 27 38 18 Burton 22 4 5 13 14 40 17 Bolton 22 3 7 12 21 41 16 Birmingham 22 4 4 14 11 32 16

League One

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League Two

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