Premier League review: Leeds stun Leicester; Chelsea win first game under Thomas Tuchel

Results

• Chelsea 2-0 Burnley
• Leicester 1-3 Leeds
• West Ham 1-3 Liverpool
• Brighton 1-0 Tottenham

Leicester 1-3 Leeds

Leicester lost the opportunity to go second in the Premier League table as they were swept aside by Leeds at the King Power Stadium.

Harvey Barnes put the Foxes in front, but Stuart Dallas immediately replied for the visitors, who went ahead against the run of play through a superb Patrick Bamford strike midway through the second half.

Bamford unselfishly set up Jack Harrison with six minutes remaining to seal a 3-1 win for Leeds and complete a desperately disappointing day for Leicester. Back-to-back victories have seen Leeds climb to 12th in the standings.

A scrappy start to the match was soon forgotten when a piece of brilliance from Barnes brought the opening goal after 13 minutes. He collected the ball just inside his own half and went on a driving run towards the edge of the penalty area, where he played a neat one-two with James Maddison before rolling a shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Leeds’s response was immediate, however, and it was another fine goal.

Maddison gave the ball away and Leeds piled forward, with the charge led by Luke Ayling down the left-hand side. He played a pass infield to Bamford, who spotted the run of Dallas in behind the Leicester defence. Dallas still had a lot to do but held off his man inside the box and beat Kasper Schmeichel with a finish into the far corner.

The hosts were on top at the beginning of the second-half and Illan Meslier was becoming the busier goalkeeper, albeit making comfortable saves to deny Pereira and Youri Tielemans.

So it was against the run of play when Leeds went ahead after 70 minutes. Leeds won the ball back in midfield and Raphinha put Bamford through on the left side of the area. He still had plenty to do but beat Schmeichel with a left-footed strike into the far top corner of the net.

Leicester had responded well to falling behind but they were unable to recover from the sucker-punch of a third Leeds goal after 84 minutes. The visitors hit Leicester on the break. Bamford was through on goal and unselfishly teed up Harrison for a tap-in from eight yards.

Chelsea 2-0 Burnley

Cesar Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso showed up Chelsea’s misfiring attacking cordon as the Blues defenders netted fine strikes in a 2-0 win over Burnley to secure Thomas Tuchel’s first win in charge.

Azpilicueta’s first goal in a year had the profligate Blues in charge at the break, before Alonso toasted his first Chelsea appearance since September with a smart finish at the death.

The Blues moved up to seventh in the table courtesy of just a third win in 10 league matches, with Tuchel tasked to launch another new era after Frank Lampard’s sacking.

Azpilicueta’s first goal since the 2-2 draw with Arsenal in January 2020 lit up the end of a drab first-half to ease Chelsea’s prior struggles in finding the net.

But while the Stamford Bridge hosts got off the ground under their sparky new German boss, their £53million Germany striker Timo Werner’s malaise continued.

Werner’s crisis of confidence remains an unwanted fixture, with the 24-year-old’s barren streak extending to just one goal in 17 appearances in all competitions.

Former Paris St Germain boss Tuchel aimed to lift Werner’s mood and goal drought by building the tactical blueprint around him.

The RB Leipzig summer recruit was to lurk just off the left wing in between the lines of a number 10 and number nine.

But just 45 minutes into that custom-built role, Tuchel changed tack.

For the second-half Werner was to play right through the middle, with Tammy Abraham withdrawn as the fall-guy as Chelsea tried everything and then some to rebuild Werner’s shattered confidence.

Azpilicueta and Alonso came to the rescue, with Chelsea full value for the win but with plenty of work ahead for new man Tuchel.

West Ham 1-3 Liverpool

Mohamed Salah ended his goal drought in spectacular fashion and avoided an unwanted personal record as Liverpool beat West Ham 3-1.

The Egyptian forward had gone six Premier League matches without a goal, equalling his longest barren spell for the Reds.

But there was to be no seventh successive blank as Salah returned to form with two exquisite second-half strikes to help fire Liverpool up to third in the table.

It was West Ham who possessed the in-form striker going into the match and Michail Antonio must have been relishing the prospect of running at Liverpool’s latest makeshift defensive pairing of Jordan Henderson and Nat Phillips.

But Antonio spurned a glorious chance to make it three goals in four games moments before Salah struck. Georginio Wijnaldum added a third for the champions before Craig Dawson’s late consolation.

It was not just Liverpool’s defence that was patched up. With Sadio Mane out with a muscle injury and Roberto Firmino starting on the bench, Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri joined Salah in attack.

Brighton 1-0 Tottenham

Brighton registered an overdue first Premier League home win of the season by deservedly seeing off an out-of-sorts Tottenham team missing star striker Harry Kane.

Leandro Trossard gave the relegation-threatened Seagulls a major boost in the scrap for survival by ending his 19-game goal drought to earn a 1-0 success.

Victory for Graham Potter’s men was their first in 15 top-flight fixtures at the Amex Stadium and moves them seven points clear of the drop zone.

Spurs created little in the absence of talisman Kane, who suffered an ankle injury during Thursday’s defeat to Liverpool, and could have few complaints about a disappointing result which deals another major blow to their top-four aspirations.

Jose Mourinho’s men remain six points adrift of the Champions League places on the back of an alarming two league wins from nine matches.

Substitute Carlos Vinicius came closest to snatching a point for the visitors, while Gareth Bale – handed a rare start in Kane’s place – was ineffectual before being replaced in the 61st minute.

The defeat would have been heavier had Brighton forward Aaron Connolly not wasted a golden chance to put the result beyond doubt six minutes from time.

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