London (AFP)

A magnificent strike from Paul Pogba gave Manchester United victory for Fulham (2-1) and first place in the Premier League on Wednesday, but City, winner of Aston Villa (2-0), are on their heels.

.

Manchester United keep their throne

Quickly led to the score, Manchester United turned the tide and lined up a 13th consecutive league game without defeat (10 wins to 3 draws) at the promoted and relegated Fulham (2-1), recovering his place as leader.

With 40 points, United are two units ahead of City, 2nd with one game less, and Leicester, 3rd.

Liverpool are relegated to 6 lengths, but the defending champion will receive Burnley on Thursday, another poorly classified (17th).

Released without damage from their passage at Anfield Road (0-0), the Red Devils fell back into their sinfulness of the start of failed matches, being surprised on a bad alignment of the side Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Ademola Lookman also took advantage of the very erratic placement of the Harry Maguire-Eric Bailly hinge to deceive David De Gea (1-0, 5th).

An opening scoring that was cause for concern, knowing that in 84 matches since the arrival at the head of the Cottagers from coach Scott Parker, they had never lost a match where they had opened the scoring.

But United are decidedly stunning this season, taking their 7th win out of 10 appearances they have been down.

It is first Edinson Cavani, holder in the axis, who, like a good fox of the surfaces, took advantage of a small hand fault from Alphonse Areola to equalize (1-1, 21st), a few seconds after Bruno Fernandes found the post on a twenty-yard strike.

But the lightning of the match came from a Paul Pogba who decidedly connects very solid and serious performances, his talent doing the rest.

In the 65th minute, he transformed a harmless ball at the corner of the area into a strike as powerful as it was precise from the left, his "bad" foot, which went to curl up in the small opposite net of Areola who, on this stroke, There was really nothing there (2-1, 65th).

Even though United's margin often remains slim, the mental resources of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men impress.

.

City remains in ambush

City will have remained a little less than two hours at the top of the standings, with the goal difference in front of Leicester, after their success against the Villans (2-0), but they confirmed their status as a very serious contender for the title.

The victory took a long time to emerge against a Birmingham team short of pace.

She had not played since January 1, the FA Cup match lost against Liverpool (4-1) on the 8 having been played by the reserve team due to numerous cases of Covid within the pro group.

City had therefore decided to attack hard, with a lot of cutting edge and determination.

There was a plethora of chances (28 shots including 9 on target), including a shot from Joao Cancelo in the area who had found the top of the crossbar (54th).

But it was not until the 79th minute and a shot from Bernardo Silva in the top corner of Emiliano Martinez (1-0), to deliver Pep Guardiola and his men.

At the very end of the match, a penalty allowed Ilkay Gündogan to give a little scale to this success (2-0, 90th), the ninth in a row in all competitions for Pep Guardiola's men.

But faced with the Villans who had their share of chances - like this enveloped strike from the former Lyonnais Bertrand Traoré, well stopped by Ederson (52nd) -, it is once again the found strength of the Citizens which made the difference with this 13th game without a goal conceded in his last 17 meetings.

With one more game up its sleeve, City have many advantages in their attempt to win back the title.

© 2021 AFP