Townsend’s cracker throws title race open
Palace win at City to leave Liverpool four points clear Guardiola vows his team will ‘fight until last second’
Andros Townsend threw the title race wide open with the best goal of his career to defeat Manchester City and leave Liverpool with a four-point lead at the Premier League summit.
The winger struck a spectacular volley, while Jeffrey Schlupp and Luka Milivojevic, with a penalty, also scored as Crystal Palace won 3-2 at the Etihad against a City side who had not dropped a point at home.
A second league defeat in three games for City ensures Liverpool, who won 2-0 at Wolves on Friday night, are in charge at the top of the table, but manager Pep Guardiola vowed not to be diverted from his side’s aim of retaining the title. “It’s complicated but we fight until the last second,” he said. “We are in December and we will try and recover and try and win games again. There are a lot of games to play. We have to recover mentally and recover our physicality.”
Guardiola omitted Sergio Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne from his starting XI, though the Belgian came on to score a consolation goal, but said: “I have few regrets. We just have to improve so these kinds of things don’t happen again. When you win, I am a genius, when you lose I am not good. I don’t know what would happen if Kevin or Sergio start.”
City’s problems were compounded by the loss of Fernandinho, who was injured in training on Friday, meaning John Stones had to operate in midfield.
Townsend was ecstatic about his strike. “It’s definitely the best goal of my career, against the best side I’ve ever played,” he said. “It sat up perfectly for me, I knew I couldn’t take a touch as City would have been on me and on the counter, and as soon as it left my foot I knew it had a good chance.”
Yet it is undoubtedly advantage Liverpool, with their full-back, Andrew Robertson, admitting Jurgen Klopp’s squad started the season believing they could win the title. On Boxing Day they face Newcastle and victory would mean they had dropped just six points in the first half of the season, putting them on course potentially to break Manchester City’s 100-point record set last season when they won the league.
“We believed we could fight for it from the start of the season,” Robertson said. “Whether or not we could be contenders you only find out at the end of the season, when someone has that ‘C’ next to their name on the Premier League table.”
It was a good day for Arsenal in the race for Champions League places, as they beat Burnley 3-1, while Jamie Vardy’s goal was enough for Leicester to spring a shock on Chelsea with a 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge that could potentially save their manager Claude Puel’s job.
Furious Burnley manager Sean Dyche accused Arsenal’s players of diving and said his side should have been awarded a penalty. “There were two dives,” Dyche said. “No one seems to want to do anything about diving in the game apart from me. I’m still amazed by it. Where do you want to start with the decisions? Shall we start with the 61 games without a penalty? And a clear double-handed push in the back on Kevin Long. That’s a pretty good place to start, I think.”
Dyche was not the only manager unhappy with his side as Chelsea’s Maurizio Sarri lamented how his team failed to respond to Vardy’s strike. “After the goal, the reaction was strange,” said Sarri. “We could have done better. There was time to score. There was mental confusion.”