London, Dec 26: Son Heung-min scored a brace to help Tottenham Hotspur spank Bournemouth 5-0 and lift his team to second place in the Premier League standings, after Manchester suffering a 1-2 defeat at Leicester City, Wednesday.
In other matches, table toppers Liverpool extended their lead at the top after thrashing Newcastle United at Anfield while a double strike from Paul Pogba ensured Manchester United to come out 3-1 winners against Huddersfield Town at Old Trafford.
Pep Guardiola’s Man City, who were down to 10 men late in the game after Fabian Delph was given marching orders, suffered their second successive loss. The defending champions had lost 2-3 to Crystal Palace at home four days ago.
City took a well deserved lead in the 14th minute through Bernardo Silva. However the happiness was shortlived as Marc Albrighton restored parity for the hosts five minutes later.
It was looking like the match would end in a draw, before Ricardo Pereira struck the winning goal against the run of play. With a goal down, Delph’s sent off in the stoppage time ensured Guardiola’s men would end up on the losing side.
The loss however brought joy for Spurs fans as their team moved up to second place after a 5-0 win over Bournemouth. Christian Eriksen (16th minute) opened the scoring for the Spurs before goals from Son and Lucas Moura ensured the hosts to go 3-0 up into the half time break. Harry Kane too joined the party after the change of ends before Son wrapped up the things with his second goal.
At Anfield, goals by Dejan Lovren, Mohamed Salah, Xherdan Shaqiri and Fabinho helped the Premier League toppers thrash Rafa Benitez’s Newcastle United 4-0.
Meanwhile, new Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continues his winning run when his team defeated Huddersfield Town 3-1 in his first match in front of home fans. Pogba was the architect of the win with two goals after Nimanja Matic put the hosts up front. Mathias Jorgensen scored the consolation goal for the visitors two minutes from time.
With these results, Liverpool maintained their top spot with 51 points while Tottenham moved up to second with 45 points, displacing Man City (44) to third. United are sixth in the standing with 32 points.