Man City turning the corner with back-to-back wins in Premier League as Chelsea stumbles again
Erling Haaland and Manchester City might be turning the corner after the team’s worst run of results under Pep Guardiola.
Haaland scored twice in a 4-1 win over West Ham as City secured back-to-back victories in the Premier League for the first time since late October.
In between, the defending champions played nine league games and won just once, dropping them out of the Champions League qualification spots.
The 2-0 win at Leicester last weekend was unconvincing but there were better signs against West Ham, not least with Haaland looking sharp in front of goal. The Norway striker headed in Savinho’s cross to make it 2-0 in the 42nd minute and chipped the goalkeeper for 3-0 in the 55th after running onto another pass from Savinho.
Either side, there was an own-goal and a strike from Phil Foden before Niclas Fullkrug pulled one back for West Ham.
City stayed in sixth place.
Chelsea slump
Chelsea’s winless run in the league extended to four matches after drawing at Crystal Palace 1-1.
Jean-Philippe Mateta equalized in the 82nd for Palace, canceling out Cole Palmer’s opener.
Chelsea has drawn twice and lost twice since Dec. 22, damaging a title bid that had been picking up some steam — even if manager Enzo Maresca never accepted his team was a realistic challenger.
Fourth-placed Chelsea was nine points behind leader Liverpool, which has two games in hand. The first is at home to Manchester United on Sunday.
Second-placed Arsenal can trim the gap to Liverpool to three points by beating Brighton later.
In-form Isak
Alexander Isak scored in a seventh straight Premier League game to earn Newcastle a 2-1 win at injury-hit Tottenham.
The Sweden striker grabbed the 38th-minute winner and there was a hint of fortune about it, with Tottenham defender Radu Drăgușin getting the slightest of touches on a cross and deflecting the ball onto the foot of Isak. The ball dribbled into the net for Isak’s 13th goal of the season, and ninth in his past seven games.
Thomas Tuchel was in the stands in his first scouting mission in his role as the recently hired England coach. Two players likely to be in his first squad, to be announced in March for World Cup qualifiers, got on the score sheet in the opening six minutes.
Dominic Solanke headed Tottenham ahead in the fourth minute, and Anthony Gordon equalized.
It was a fifth straight win for fifth-placed Newcastle, while Tottenham stayed in the bottom half of the standings with just one point from its last four games.
Southampton thrashed
A change in manager hasn’t helped Southampton.
The league’s last-placed team was beaten by Brentford 5-0 at home for a third straight defeat under Ivan Juric, who was hired on Dec. 21 to replace the fired Russell Martin. Southampton has one point from four games under Juric.
Bryan Mbeumo scored two of Brentford’s goals and has 13 for the season in the league.
Aston Villa beat Leicester 2-1 and Bournemouth won at home to Everton 1-0.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer