London: Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City sit pretty at the Premier League summit after their closest rivals Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal and Manchester City remarkably all contrived to lose on Wednesday.
Leicester had dropped points in a 2-2 draw with West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday, but they remain in pole position after Spurs lost 0-1 at West Ham United, Arsenal crashed 1-2 at home to Swansea City and Liverpool claimed revenge for their League Cup final defeat by crushing City 3-0.
The results kept Leicester three points clear of second-place Tottenham, with Arsenal — booed off at the Emirates Stadium — three points further back and City now 10 points off the pace, albeit with a game in hand.
“We made some mistakes and the team didn’t feel free to play the way they play,” Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, whose side host Arsenal on Saturday, told the BBC.
Manchester United are now level on points with City in fifth place, having played a game more, after Juan Mata’s 83rd-minute free-kick secured a 1-0 home win over Watford.
Two goals in seven first-half minutes put Liverpool in control, Adam Lallana beating England colleague Joe Hart from 25 yards with a tame left-footer before James Milner stabbed in from Roberto Firmino’s pass.
Firmino completed victory for Liverpool in the 57th minute, curling home from Lallana’s pass, as Jurgen Klopp’s men climbed to eighth.
West Ham’s victory over Tottenham, courtesy of Michail Antonio’s seventh-minute header, left them a point off the Champions League places in sixth place.
Spurs, for whom Dele Alli started on the bench due to a foot injury, would have gone top on goal difference if they had won at Upton Park.
German league: Bayern get blown up by Mainz
Pep Guardiola admits his Bayern Munich face a fight at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday in their battle to win a historic fourth Bundesliga title after Mainz’s upset victory in Bavaria.
Bayern’s shock 1-2 defeat both trimmed their lead over second-placed Dortmund to just five points and saw them lose their 100 per cent home record for this season.
Dortmund host Bayern in a top-of-the-table clash in three days and Guardiola admitted his side has a fight on their hands.
An unthinkable second straight league defeat for Bayern would leave Dortmund trailing by just two points with nine games left in Germany’s top flight.
But the Spaniard said Bayern simply were not good enough against Mainz as they failed to convert their mind-blowing 78 per cent ball possession into victory.
“Our performance wasn’t good enough, but I am not sad,” said Guardiola, who is in his final season in Munich before coaching Manchester City next season.
