Manchester City nick EPL victory over Luton Town after big wins for Everton, Fulham

Without the injured Erling Haaland and trailing 1-0 to Luton at halftime, Manchester City was in danger of plunging into a full-blown crisis approaching the halfway point of their Premier League title defence.

The defending champions managed to turn it round, though, as goals by Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish in a three-minute span earned a 2-1 victory on Sunday (Monday NZ time) that ended their four-match winless run and trimmed the gap to first-place Liverpool to four points.

If it wasn’t for the recovery in the second half, City manager Pep Guardiola would have stumbled into the worst streak of results in his coaching career, having never gone five matches without a win.

That was the bleak scenario facing Guardiola and City after striker Elijah Adebayo headed in Andros Townsend’s cross at the back post in the second minute of first-half stoppage time to give Luton the lead at Kenilworth Road – five days after the promoted hosts blew a 3-2 lead against Arsenal to lose 4-3.

Haaland was sidelined because of a foot injury so City was without the league’s top scorer in their bid to produce a fightback.

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Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva (R) after opening the scoring.

Still, Rodri was back from suspension and when the Spain midfielder’s surge into the area was stopped by a timely challenge, Silva was there to pounce on the loose ball and curl a finish into the bottom corner in the 62nd.

Grealish then converted a cross by Julian Alvarez in the 65th.

City stayed in fourth place.

Spurs soar

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Ange Postecoglou’s team turned it on at home to arrest a recent slide with 4-1 win.

Tottenham powered to a their first win in six weeks by thrashing a tired-looking Newcastle team 4-1, with Richarlison scoring a goal in each half.

Destiny Udogie – with his first Premier League goal – and Son Heung-min – from a late penalty – also scored for Spurs, who ended a five-game winless run that saw them plummet from the top of the standings to outside the top four.

“We could have had more goals, but our attacking play was as good as it has been for a while,” Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou said. “You can see Newcastle are running on fumes – we’ve gone through that and hopefully we are coming out the other side.”

Saudi-owned Newcastle is paying the price for a lengthy injury list that has led to manager Eddie Howe fielding the same starting lineup for five straight games in all competitions. The team lacked energy and sprightliness, especially in midfield, and could have lost by a bigger margin at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of a must-win game against AC Milan in the Champions League on Wednesday (Thursday NZ time).

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Tottenham’s Richarlison (L) celebrates one of his two goals in a home rout of Newcastle.

Newcastle have now lost six Premier League games this season, one more than the whole of the 2022-23 campaign. They have just one away win – an 8-0 victory at Sheffield United – and stayed in seventh place, now four points adrift of fifth-place Spurs.

Tottenham took the lead in each of their games in that recent winless streak and did so again in the 26th minute, when Udogie tapped in a cross from Son.

Instead of caving in, Spurs built on that lead when Richarlison swept in a cross from Son, who had again rounded Kieran Trippier with ease, in the 38th.

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Richarlison steers home his second goal.

That was his first goal in 20 Premier League starts for Tottenham and he grabbed a second goal in the 60th by bringing down a diagonal pass from Pedro Porro and placing a finish between the legs of goalkeeper Martin Dubravka.

Brennan Johnson struck a shot against the post before Dubravka brought down Son, who got up to convert his penalty – Tottenham’s first this season – into the bottom corner.

“We said we had to be more ruthless,” Son said. “We were ruthless today.”

Joelinton scored a consolation goal in stoppage time for Newcastle.

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An early goal saw Aston Villa move to third after Arsenal were denied a late equaliser for handball.

Surging Everton

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Everton’s Lewis Dobbin, second left, scores his side’s second goal against Chelsea.

Everton are surging clear of the relegation zone, less than a month after plunging into the bottom three after being deducted 10 points for financial mismanagement.

A 2-0 win over Chelsea secured a third straight win for Everton, who have moved four points clear of third-from last Luton.

Abdoulaye Doucoure scored for the third time in five games, converting a rebound in the 54th after Dominic Calvert-Lewin had a shot saved by Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez. Lewis Dobbin added a second in the second minute of stoppage time.

After spending around $1 billion on players in the last three transfer windows, Chelsea isn’t even in the top half after losing three of its last four games.

The visitors also lost right back Reece James to another injury after he was forced off in the 27th minute with a suspected hamstring problem.

In-form Jimenez

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Fulham hail Tosin Adarabioyo, third left, after he netted the third goal in a 5-0 rout of West Ham.

Raul Jimenez is enjoying a new lease of life at Fulham.

The Mexico international went through some lean times after sustaining a career-threatening head injury while playing for Wolverhampton in November 2020. From being one of the most sought-after strikers in the Premier League, he appeared to lose all of his confidence and was sold to Fulham in July.

With his 22nd-minute strike in Fulham’s 5-0 win over West Ham, Jimenez has four goals in his last five games and is leading a mid-season resurgence from the London club.

Willian and Tosin Adarabioyo added first-half goals while Harry Wilson and Carlos Vinicius added more after the break as Fulham scored at least three goals for the fourth straight game, after doing so against Wolverhampton, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

It was a second straight 5-0 win, after thrashing Forest by that score in midweek.

Marco Silva’s team are now in 10th place and only three points behind ninth-place West Ham, whose four-match unbeaten run in the league came to an end.