Manchester City 1 Liverpool 1: Tottenham keep hold of second place as points are shared in top four battle

On target: Sergio Aguero
Getty Images
Sam Long19 March 2017

Sergio Aguero grabbed an equaliser to help Manchester City hang on to third place in the Premier League table with a 1-1 draw against Liverpool.

A James Milner penalty, awarded after Gael Clichy's brought down Roberto Firmino, appeared to have put Jurgen Klopp's on course to climb above their rivals.

But Aguero poked home Kevin De Bruyne's cross to snatch a draw, although City are now two points behind Tottenham, who beat Southampton earlier this afternoon.

Kane's absence with an ankle injury meant Son Heung-min led the line but it was Spurs' attacking midfielders who filled the void, with Eriksen breaking the deadlock before Alli won and then converted a penalty.

James Ward-Prowse cut the deficit for Southampton after half-time to spark hopes of a comeback but Tottenham held on.

Chelsea's march towards the title shows no sign of slowing, but victory pulled Mauricio Pochettino's men seven points clear of Manchester United in fifth and nine points ahead of Arsenal, albeit having played a game more than both clubs.

United climbed above the Gunners courtesy of a 3-1 win at Middlesbrough, playing their first game since sacking manager Aitor Karanka.

Ashley Young's deep cross found Marouane Fellaini at the back post to open the scoring, before Jesse Lingard's thunderous strike doubled United's lead after the break.

Boro, with caretaker boss Steve Agnew in charge, did not roll over by any means, though, and when Chris Smalling made a mess of a clearance substitute Rudy Gestede pounced to pull a goal back.

Belief was growing around the Riverside until an embarrassing moment to settled the match as Antonio Valencia capitalised on former United team-mate Victor Valdes' slip to wrap up victory.

Additional reporting by the Press Association

Pos Team P W D L GD Pts
1 Chelsea 28 22 3 3 38 69
2 Tottenham 28 17 8 3 34 59
3 Man City 28 17 6 5 24 57
4 Liverpool 29 16 8 5 25 56
5 Man United 27 16 5 7 19 52
6 Arsenal 27 15 5 7 22 50
7 Everton 29 14 10 3 21 50
8 West Brom 29 12 7 10 1 43
9 Stoke City 29 9 9 11 -9 36
10 Southampton 27 9 6 12 -3 33
11 Bournemouth 29 9 6 14 -12 33
12 West Ham 29 9 6 14 -12 33
13 Burnley 29 9 5 15 -11 32
14 Watford 28 8 7 13 -15 31
15 Leicester City 28 8 6 14 -14 30
16 Crystal Palace 28 8 4 16 -10 28
17 Swansea City 28 8 3 17 -25 27
18 Hull City 29 6 6 17 -32 24
19 Middlesbrough 28 4 10 14 -13 22
20 Sunderland 28 5 5 18 -26 20

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in