Man City back atop Premier League as Mahrez finally delivers
Substitute Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal as Manchester City beat Bournemouth 1-0 at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday to return to the top of the Premier League. The win put City top on 71 points, two ahead of Liverpool who face Everton in the Merseyside derby on Sunday. Bournemouth, who have lost four of their last five, remained 12th on 34 points.
- Sports
- AP
- Published Date: 09:16 | 02 March 2019
- Modified Date: 09:16 | 02 March 2019
A club-record signing for $80 million, Riyad Mahrez has struggled to make a significant impact in his first season at Manchester City.
Scoring a huge goal in the Premier League title race might just turn things round for the Algeria winger.
Mahrez came off the bench and poked in a scruffy goal as City beat Bournemouth 1-0 to climb to the top of the standings on Saturday. The defending champions are two points clear of Liverpool, whose game in hand is at cross-town rival Everton on Sunday.
Mahrez's biggest previous intervention in this season's title race came at Anfield in October, when he missed a late penalty in a 0-0 draw with Liverpool. He has only scored three league goals since then and has dropped to being the fourth-choice winger in recent weeks under Pep Guardiola, behind Raheem Sterling, Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane.
This was a second 1-0 win of the week for City, after beating West Ham by the same score on Wednesday, and it came at the end of a grueling seven-day period that began with a penalty-shootout victory over Chelsea in the League Cup final.
Third-place Tottenham dropped further from title contention by drawing 1-1 with Arsenal in the north London derby. In the end, Tottenham was thankful for a point, with goalkeeper Hugo Lloris saving an injury-time penalty from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Manchester United moved above Arsenal into fourth place — and to within three points of Tottenham — by beating Southampton 3-2 thanks to an 88th-minute winner from Romelu Lukaku, his second goal of the game. Paul Pogba had a late penalty saved.
Wolverhampton Wanderers consolidated seventh place with a 2-0 win over Cardiff, which stayed in the relegation zone. Crystal Palace won 3-1 at Burnley, and last-place Huddersfield slipped closer to the drop by losing 1-0 at Brighton.