Manchester City claimed a comfortable 3-0 victory over Everton to move back up to second in the Premier League and within touching distance of leaders Chelsea.
Raheem Sterling’s first-half effort set City on their way, marking his 300th top-flight appearance with a deft finish from Joao Cancelo’s sublime outside-of-the-foot pass.
Everton, who had benefitted from a first-half video assistant referee decision to overturn the award of a penalty when Sterling fell under Michael Keane’s challenge, toiled throughout.
With four key players already: With Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Abdoulaye Doucoure, Yerry Mina and Andre Gomes all out injured, Rafael Benitez’s side rarely looked capable of posing the hosts any problems in attack and Demarai Gray added to their mounting injury concerns by limping off early on.
The only crumb of comfort for the visitors, who remain 11th in the table, was that the margin of defeat was not greater.
Ilkay Gundogan headed against the crossbar for City and Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford made excellent saves to prevent Silva and Sterling from adding to the scoreline.
There was also a nod to the future as James McAtee made his Premier League debut late on to replace fellow 19-year-old Cole Palmer, as City warmed up for Wednesday’s Group A Champions League contest against Paris St-Germain with their third consecutive win in all competitions.
Elsewhere, Antonio Conte secured his first Premier League win in charge of Tottenham as Spurs staged an impressive second-half comeback to beat struggling Leeds United 2-1.
The hosts failed to manage a single shot on or off target in a lacklustre opening 45 minutes with the determined visitors by far the better side.
There were some boos from the home fans as Tottenham left the pitch for the break, but Conte’s side were much improved after the restart, twice hitting the woodwork early on.
First, Harry Kane – anonymous in the first half – broke clear of the defence and his powerful low effort squirmed under Illan Meslier and hit the base of the upright before Song Heung-min’s heavily-deflected strike hit the crossbar.
The equaliser arrived just before the hour mark when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg curled into the far corner after good work by Lucas Moura.
Tottenham kept up the pressure and the turnaround was complete in the 69th minute when Eric Dier’s free-kick deflected off the wall and onto the post, but Sergio Reguilon was there to poke in the rebound and score his first Premier League goal for Spurs.
The home side then closed out the game to secure a win that moves them up to seventh, four points off the top four.
Leeds, meanwhile, remain 17th and just two points above the relegation zone.
BBC
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