The 17th round of the English league will close tonight (Thursday) with three games. European champions Chelsea will host Everton in hopes of bridging the gap between them and Manchester City at the top to just two points. Second in the table Liverpool will host the penultimate Newcastle. Tonight, too, the Corona’s blow in the Premier League caused a game postponement, this time in the intriguing encounter between Leicester and Tottenham.
Chelsea – Everton 0: 0 (Half 2)
Thomas Tuchel’s team almost found itself losing points again in the last round, but salvaged a dramatic victory thanks to an accurate Giorgini penalty in the 94th minute en route to a win over Leeds. Now, if Chelsea face a rival in front of them they should not have a hard time, but they are missing Romulo Lukaku, Timo Werner, Kai Habertz and Callum Hudson Audoi who are reportedly possibly infected with Corona. Everton are in a terrible period, having lost seven of their last nine rounds, when in addition to all the trouble injured Richardson could not play. In all, seven players will be missing from Topiz. A victory for the Blues will bring them back two points away from leaders Manchester City.
Liverpool – Newcastle 1: 2 (half)
The Mighty Reds are counting seven straight wins in all competitions, and will hope to continue the momentum in a game in which they are clear favorites. Manchester City’s big win over Leeds has moved Pep Guardiola’s side up four points from second-placed Liverpool, and Jurgen Klopp’s side want to close the gap again and bring it down to just minus a point. On the other hand, Eddie Howe’s bottom team has only won once this season, and that was two rounds ago. Last round Newcastle snatched a 4-0 win over Leicester, and if they manage to take points at Anfield it will be a big surprise.
Corona also came to Liverpool and the team announced that Curtis Jones, Virgil Van Dyke and Fabigno are borderline positive for Corona.
Minute 7: Gate! Thiago Alcantara fared badly from an extension, it came back to Jonjo Shelby, who kicked very nicely from 20 yards to the corner Newcastle’s 0-1
21 min: Gate! Sadio Mana raised from the right, Diego Jote hit and was blocked by goalkeeper Martin Dobrevka, but the striker came first to the return ball and kicked in, 1: 1
25 min: Gate! Sadio Mana took advantage of a mistake in the defense and reached a one-on-one against Dubrava, but the goalkeeper stopped him, it came back to Muhammad Salah who easily kicked in the 1: 2
Brendan Rodgers says he has 9 players unavailable through illness and COVID. The club asked Premier League to look at postponing Spurs game but they refused.
Leicester have NO senior centre-backs left available for tomorrow’s fixture. pic.twitter.com/VgRJdlaBcy
— Footy Accumulators (FootyAccums) December 15, 2021
The round games held last night:
Norwich – Aston Villa 2: 0
Manchester United – Leeds 0: 7