London (AFP)

Manchester City won the shock of matchday 18 of the Premier League with authority, beating Leicester (3-1), who is now close behind in the race for second place.

City still widens the gap with Chelsea (4th), relegated to 9 points before moving to Tottenham, which would overtake him if successful Sunday.

It is a result which makes especially the business of Liverpool which keeps ten points ahead of Leicester before receiving it in 5 days.

Beyond the result, it was the way in which the defending champion subdued his ambitious rival, unbeaten for 12 games, that marked the spirits.

The men of Pep Guardiola imposed on Leicester a suffocating pressing and made lightning fall on the opposing cages with 23 shots including 12 on target.

Riyad Mahrez, author of the equalizer at half an hour of play, a deflected shot, and Kevin de Bruyne, assists on the third goal of Gabriel Jesus 20 minutes from the end, were again excellent.

The Foxes did not really believe it until eight minutes, after the opening of the score by the best English scorer Jamie Vardy (17 achievements), of a magnificent ball pricked above Ederson (0-1, 22e).

But without a Kasper Schmeichel author of superb parades against Jesus (18th), De Bruyne (40th) or Mahrez (66th), or without the help of the post which had repelled a strike from De Bruyne (14th) the addition could have to be very heavy.

This match has in any case decided by its intensity with the tasteless Everton-Arsenal (0-0) which opened the day.

The two future coaches of these teams, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, whose appointment was announced just before the match, and Mikel Arteta, were able to measure the extent of the work awaiting them, as proved by their dark mine, to not not say defeat, at the final whistle.

- Aubameyang misses the boat -

In this poor game offensively and sealed by inaccuracies on both sides, Arsenal created the only opportunity worthy of the name by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, receiving a corner kick at the far post, but his recovery has was pushed away with a firm hand by the English international goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (51st).

For his last match in charge of Arsenal, Freddie Ljungberg had nevertheless decided to give a facelift by establishing Bukayo Saka (18), Reiss Nelson (20), Emile Smith-Rowe (19) and Gabriel Martinelli (18 years).

Mattéo Guendouzi, Nicolas Pépé and Alexandre Lacazette were on the bench and Mesut Özil not even on the scoresheet.

"We had a very young team because I wanted energy and I wanted to give them a chance," said the Swede, who said he "liked the mood we saw, what you need in the Premier League, "said Ljungberg.

Arsenal will at least have the satisfaction of not having taken a goal, unlike the last 15 meetings.

Everton, for his part, still displayed "solid organization" and "great discipline" praised by Ancelotti on his arrival.

"There was a lack of quality in the last third of the field," admitted Scotland's Duncan Ferguson, who completes his interim on the unbeaten bench, with two draws and a championship victory.

This point still allows Everton to climb from one rank to 15th place and increase its lead in the red zone by 3 to 4 points.

Arsenal slipped to 11th place, overtaken by Burnley who won 1-0 at Bournemouth.

In the other matches of the day, Sheffield United and Wolverhampton recorded significant successes in Brighton (0-1) and Norwich (1-2), which allows them to provisionally take 5th and 6th places in the ranking, one and two Chelsea points.

Results of the 18th day:

postponed

West Ham - Liverpool

Saturday

Everton - Arsenal 0 - 0

Bournemouth - Burnley 0 - 1

Norwich City - Wolverhampton 1 - 2

Newcastle - Crystal Palace 1 - 0

Brighton - Sheffield United 0 - 1

Aston Villa - Southampton 1 - 3

Manchester City - Leicester 3 - 1

Sunday

(2:00 p.m. GMT) Watford - Manchester United

(4.30 p.m. GMT) Tottenham - Chelsea

© 2019 AFP