Pulisic stars for Chelsea as Man City chase Liverpool
Christian Pulisic hit the first hat-trick of his career as Chelsea crushed Burnley 4-2 on Saturday while Manchester City overcame a sluggish start to beat Aston Villa and increase the pressure on Liverpool.
In the early kick-off, a frustrated Pep Guardiola watched his side recover from a tepid first half to defeat Villa 30 and close the gap on Premier League leaders, Liverpool, to three points.
Pulisic scored his first goals for Frank Lampard’s Chelsea, who have now won four straight Premier League games, while Marco Silva is under pressure after another Everton defeat.
Willian added a fourth for rampant Chelsea in the 58th minute to take the score to 4-0 and despite late goals for Jay Rodriguez and Dwight McNeil, the visitors avoided further shocks to win 4-2.
Earlier, City boss Guardiola was frustrated with the way his players struggled to establish any momentum in the first half against Villa despite an ultimately comfortable win at the Etihad Stadium.
“Of course, respect and credit for Aston Villa. The first half we played football, but we don’t play in the way we should play,” Guardiola said, after second-half goals from Raheem Sterling, David Silva and Ilkay Gundogan. “We were better in the second half. I don’t know if it was because of the early goal.”
At the Amex Stadium, Everton blew a 2-1 lead over Brighton in the final 10 minutes. Silva’s side recovered from conceding the first goal to lead, but Brighton’s Neal Maupay scored an 80th-minute penalty after Michael Keane was controversially ruled by VAR to have fouled Aaron Connolly.
Everton defender Lucas Digne added to Silva’s woes when his stoppagetime own goal from Leandro Trossard’s cross left Everton two points above the relegation zone after their fifth defeat in their past six league games.
Watford remain bottom of the table after a 0-0 draw against Bournemouth.
Lys Mousset finished a memorable week with the equaliser in Sheffield United’s 1-1 draw at West Ham.
Saturday’s action could not eclipse Leicester’s incredible 9-0 thrashing of Southampton at St Mary’s 24 hours earlier.
Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers believes there is even better to come from Leicester after they equalled the biggest margin of victory in the Premier League era. -