LONDON (Reuters) – Christian Eriksen scored his first goal for Brentford as they claimed a shock 4-1 win at Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday, while Manchester City maintained their slim advantage at the top with a routine 2-0 victory against Burnley.
Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger broke the deadlock three minutes into the second half with a stunning long-range effort but Brentford responded almost instantly through Vitaly Janelt, who rifled home from the edge of the box.
Eriksen, whose career was in doubt after suffering a near-fatal cardiac arrest during the European Championship last year, gave Brentford the lead in the 54th minute before Janelt grabbed a second and Yoane Wissa capped off a splendid evening for Thomas Frank’s side with a late fourth.
“Nobody saw it coming, especially after going 1-0 ahead. It was very untypical of us,” said Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, whose side remain third on 59 points, 14 behind leaders City but with a game in hand.
“We stopped defending. We were not aware of enough of the danger, were sloppy with the defending and got punished… they were lucky and clinical enough to get three goals.”
First-half strikes from City’s Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan were enough to see off Burnley and stay one point ahead of Liverpool, who were far from their fluent best against Watford in the early kickoff but still eked out a 2-0 win.
Burnley offered little in front of goal and created their best chance in the second half when Maxwel Cornet’s header was cleared off the line by Nathan Ake. A fourth straight defeat left Burnley in 19th place.
“We came here to win the game and we did it. You never know what’s going to happen after an international break,” said City boss Pep Guardiola. “It was made more complicated by the fact we couldn’t score the third goal.”
Earlier, Diogo Jota put Liverpool ahead against Watford after 22 minutes in manager Juergen Klopp’s 250th game in charge before a late Fabinho penalty secured the points in a hard-fought encounter.
Wolverhampton Wanderers kept their European hopes alive as goals from Jonny and Ashley Young clinched a 2-1 win over Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa. Wolves are now up to seventh, while Villa are ninth following a third straight loss.
James Ward-Prowse scored an excellent freekick as Southampton grabbed a point in a 1-1 draw at Leeds United while Brighton & Hove Albion extended their winless streak to seven league games after a goalless draw against bottom club Norwich City.
Sixth-placed Manchester United host Leicester City in the late game.
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
