Premier League: Manchester City and Aston Villa do the job, Crystal Palace finally revives

The 20th day of the Premier League resumed this Saturday afternoon with four matches on the program, a few moments after Chelsea’s victory on the lawn of Luton Town (3-2). Among the teams to play at 4 p.m., Manchester City, fourth in the standings but with one game less to play, hosted promoted Sheffield United, dead last in the championship. If the logic was respected at the Etihad, the Cityzens, who found Kevin De Bruyne – present for the first time in the group for four and a half months, had not easily imposed themselves in front of their public.

Indeed, Pep Guardiola’s flock first broke the deadlock thanks to the Spaniard Rodri, who brought the ball alone to the front of the penalty area before adjusting the Blades goalkeeper with a low shot ( 14th). Despite a controlled encounter, the Skyblues narrowly missed in the last gesture, before making the break through Julian Alvarez (2-0, 61st). A performance below expectations but sufficient against a sick red lantern to take the three points of victory and keep pace with Aston Villa in the standings, winner of another promoted, Burnley, at the same time.

Aston Villa new runner-up to Liverpool

The residents of Villa Park, held to a draw by Sheffield at home then beaten at Old Trafford, absolutely had to win to stay in the title race behind leader Liverpool. Unai Emery’s foals started the match perfectly with Leon Bailey’s opener (1-0, 28th) before seeing Zeki Amdouni quickly reset the counters to zero in the process (1-1, 30th). Watkins offered himself a double of offerings by serving Moussa Diaby (2-1, 42nd). Returning from the break, the locals even played half an hour in numerical superiority after the second warning received by Sander Berge (2-2, 56th).

But Vincent Kompany’s Clarets had the strength of character to come back through Lyle Foster (72nd). Finally, Douglas Luiz offered the three units of success to his team thanks to a cross-field penalty (3-2, 90th). A revival at home which comes at the right time, since Villa goes second ahead of Arsenal, traveling to Fulham. In the other matches of the afternoon, the Wolves slapped Everton (3-0), notably thanks to Matheus Cunha scoring then assisting. Finally, Crystal Palace finally tasted victory again since the beginning of November by beating Brentford, notably with a double from Michael Olise (3-1).