Manchester City cruise to win at Chelsea to pile pressure on Frank Lampard

Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne all struck in the first half as Manchester City thumped Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge to heap pressure on Frank Lampard.

City shook off a clutch of positive coronavirus cases and Benjamin Mendy’s breach of social-distancing protocols to stun the Blues with three first-half goals inside the first 35 minutes in west London.

Callum Hudson-Odoi neatly netted a late consolation for the hosts, but Lampard’s men were second best in all departments.

Chelsea v Manchester City – Premier League – Stamford Bridge
Chelsea v Manchester City – Premier League – Stamford Bridge

Pep Guardiola’s side stretched their unbeaten run to 11 matches in all competitions, moving up to fifth in the Premier League. City are four points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool with a game in hand.

Chelsea by contrast have now lost four of their last six Premier League matches and have slipped to eighth in the table.

Youri Tielemans’ stunning finish ensured Leicester remain firmly in the title race after a fifth successive Premier League victory at Newcastle.

Tielemans struck 18 minutes from time to add to James Maddison’s 55th-minute opener as the Foxes won 2-1, profiting from two rare pieces of quality in an otherwise ordinary game which failed to light up a wintry Tyneside.

Man about toon. pic.twitter.com/5kurAVjgRt

— Leicester City (@LCFC) January 3, 2021

Even Jamie Vardy was strangely off key as he repeatedly strayed offside, although it was his astute pull-back which allowed Maddison to open the scoring.

Newcastle briefly gave themselves hope when substitute Andy Carroll scored his first goal for the club in more than 10 years as time ran down, but it proved to be too little, too late.

Leicester are third in the table, a point behind Liverpool having played a game more than Jurgen Klopp’s side.

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