Man City rally for 3-1 win over Everton, Chelsea record rare home win

Trailing 10 to Everton at halftime during Thursdays Premier League 202324 Manchester City didnt much look like the newly crowned Club World Cup champion despite the new golden FIFA badge on the front of the players shirtsBut Pep Guardiola had a simple message to his players at the breakThe manager told us at halftime to just keep believing we havent got this badge for no reason City midfielder Phil Foden said In the second half yeah wow I think we blew them away with the way we playedFoden started the comeback by equalizing in the 53rd minute before Julian Alvarezs penalty and a late goal by Bernardo Silva secured a 31 win at Everton to put the defending champions back into the top four of the Premier League 202324Thats why were the world champions The best team in the world Guardiola said with a smile in a postgame interview on Amazon Prime Now Im going to remind them every day We have a standard to keepThe trip to Saudi Arabia for the Club World Cup was perhaps a bit of a distraction and allowed rivals Liverpool and Arsenal to widen the gap at the top But City now can now fully refocus on the task of winning an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League title and this was a vital first step in showing that it cant be counted out despite a recent poor run of formCity is five points behind leader Liverpool with a game in hand while Arsenal can go six points ahead of Guardiolas team by beating West Ham on ThursdayRare home win for ChelseaLeague victories at Stamford Bridge have been hard to come by for Chelsea in 2023 But its last home game of the year ended in a 21 win over Crystal Palace after substitute Noni Madueke converted a late penalty for the hostsIt was just Chelseas sixth home league win of the calendar year and Mauricio Pochettinos team once again struggled to turn possession into goals for much of the game With Chelsea fielding the clubs youngest ever starting lineup for a Premier League game thanks to a slew of injuries and suspensions the Blues took the lead through Mykhailo Mudryk in the 13th minute But the hosts missed several chances to double their advantage before Michael Olise equalized just before the breakJust as it looked like Chelseas inefficiency up front would cost it again Madueke was tripped by Eberechi Eze inside the area and stepped up to the spot himself to send goalkeeper Dean Henderson the wrong way in the 89th minuteAlso ReadFluminense midfielder Andre on Man Cityrsquos radarThat lifted Chelsea into 10th place which is still far from where the club had expected to be at this stage when it hired Pochettino at the end of last seasonFall of BrentfordBrentford might need to start worrying about a relegation scrap Thomas Franks team fell to a sixth loss in seven games after making a couple of defensive howlers in a 41 home defeat against WolverhamptonSouth Korea forward Hwang Heechan scored twice as Wolves took full advantage of Brentfords mistakes including one that came straight after the kickoff following the visitors opening goal Nathan Collins back pass to goalkeeper Mark Flekken was underhit allowing Hwang to round him and tap into an empty net barely 10 seconds after the restartBrentford is in 14th place just four points outside the relegation zone while Wolves climbed to 11th placeWith agency inputs