City lose 2-1 to Chelsea, made to wait for Premier League crown

London, May 9 (IANS): Manchester City will have to wait at least 24 hours before they are crowned Premier League champions for this season after they lost 2-1 at home to Chelsea on Saturday evening.

A win for Pep Guardiola’s men would have assured the title, but now they need Manchester United to lose away to Aston Villa on Sunday to confirm their crown after losing to their fellow Champions League finalists at the Etihad Stadium Xinhua reports.

Guardiola made plenty of changes to the side that beat Paris Saint Germain on Tuesday but saw his side take the lead through Raheem Sterling on the stroke of halftime.

It should have been game over moments later when City was awarded a penalty, but Kun Aguero tried to score a chipped ‘Panenka’ style penalty only for Chelsea keeper Eduoard Mendy to stand tall and make an easy save.

Chelsea improved drastically after the break with Hakim Ziyech taking advantage of good work by Christian Pulisic to level with his left foot.

Marcos Alonso put down a marker for the Champions League final with a finish into the top corner of the net after excellent work from Timo Werner.

Liverpool kept their slim hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive with a 2-0 win at home to Southampton. Sadio Mane’s first goal in the league at Anfield in nine matches opened the scoring after 30 minutes and Thiago Alcantara assured the points with a powerful finish in the last minute.

Leeds United dealt a serious blow to Tottenham’s hopes of playing in Europe next season as goals from Stuart Dallas, Patrick Bamford, and Rodrigo saw them home 3-1, with Heung Min Son netting for a totally outplayed Spurs.

Leicester City’s top-four hopes also suffered a serious blow when they lost 4-2 at home to Newcastle United on Friday night.

Joe Willock, Paul Dummett, and two goals from Callum Wilson put Newcastle, who have banished any relegation fears with the result, 4-0 up before Marc Albrighton and Kelechi Iheanacho netted late consolation efforts for the home side, who have slipped to fourth after Chelsea’s win.

Finally, Crystal Palace enjoyed a 2-0 win away to already-relegated Sheffield United thanks to a second-minute goal from Christian Dembele and in the 88th minute following a corner from Eberechi Eze.