Olivier Giroud scored his fifth goal in two games as Chelsea came from behind to beat Leeds and climb to the top of the Premier League table.
Patrick Bamford stunned his former club with a fourth-minute opener as fans returned to Stamford Bridge, but Olivier Giroud stopped the rot before the break and Kurt Zouma’s thumping 61st-minute effort and an injury-time strike from substitute Christian Pulisic clinched a 3-1 win.
That was enough to ease the Blues, who had started the day in third place, above Tottenham and Liverpool, for a few hours at least.
💬 Ole: "We’ve done it too often now to be a coincidence, those comebacks. It’s in those boys and in this badge.”— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 5, 2020
Manchester United had to be similarly resilient as they recovered from a dreadful first-half display at West Ham to win by the same score.
The Hammers deservedly led at the break through Tomas Soucek’s 38th-minute opener, and it might have been worse for the visitors had Sebastien Haller not slipped with the goal at his mercy after rounding keeper Dean Henderson, in for the injured David De Gea, seconds later.
But Paul Pogba’s fine 65th-minute finish restored parity despite David Moyes’ pleas that the ball had gone out of play during the build-up before Mason Greenwood and substitute Marcus Rashford both struck in quick succession to seal the win six days after United had mounted a similar comeback at Southampton.
Earlier, Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne struck early as Manchester City eased to victory over Fulham in the 700th game of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career.
👌👌👌— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 5, 2020
De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling left Scott Parker’s promoted side with a mountain to climb in what was also Guardiola’s 250th fixture at the helm as City won back-to-back league matches for the first time this season.
First the Belgium international slid a perfectly-weighted pass into the England striker’s run to enable him to fire City into a fifth-minute lead with his first goal in seven games.
Then the tables were turned when Sterling went to ground under defender Joachim Anderson’s challenge inside the penalty area and De Bruyne stepped up to make it 2-0 from the spot with just 26 minutes played.
De Bruyne rattled the crossbar five minutes after the restart, but with Fulham providing stiffer resistance after the break and keeper Alphonse Areola making a series of saves, they ultimately had to settle for what they had.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s 11th goal of the season spared Everton a fifth defeat in six league outings as the visitors came from behind to take a point at Burnley.
Robbie Brady had fired the home side into a third-minute lead at Turf Moor with his first goal since December last year following an error by Allan.
However, the Brazilian redeemed himself in first-time stoppage time when he won the ball from Ashley Westwood to allow Richarlison to send in a cross which was poked home by Calvert-Lewin.
England rivals Nick Pope and Jordan Pickford both made crucial second-half saves as the two sides pushed for the win, but ultimately had to make do with a point apiece.
