United take advantage as Man City held at Burnley

Manchester United's new signing Alexis Sanchez scored on his home debut in a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town as they took advantage of a slip by cross-town rival and Premier League leader Manchester City Saturday. After City had been held 1-1 at Burnley, their daunting lead over United was reduced to 13 points when Jose Mourinho's side eventually overcame a defensive Huddersfield side. It took 55 minutes before Romelu Lukaku broke the deadlock after which Sanchez won a penalty, had it saved by Jonas Lossl, but tucked away the rebound in the 68th. City paid the price for missed chances as they drew at Turf Moor with Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s 82nd-minute equaliser earning Burnley a point. City had dominated possession but, after taking the lead with a fine strike from Brazilian Danilo in the 22nd minute, the visitor failed to press home their advantage. City have 69 points, ahead of United on 56 with third-placed Liverpool (50) at home to Tottenham Hotspur (48), who are fifth, Sunday, while Chelsea (50) visit mid-table Watford Monday. Sixth-placed Arsenal (45) led Everton 4-0 at halftime and won 5-1 as Welsh international Aaron Ramsey scored the first hat-trick of his career. Record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was also among the scorers.

24 goals, 5 victories and just 1 clean sheet on a busy #PL Saturday Reports and reaction: https://t.co/5XVaYmJ9yI pic.twitter.com/ZeW9b3VrEM

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 3, 2018

Huddersfield's defeat at Old Trafford dropped them into the bottom three for the first time since they were promoted as Southampton and Swansea City both moved above them. Bottom club West Bromwich Albion lost 3-2 at home to Southampton on an emotional day at the Hawthorns, where there was a minute's applause for the home side's former striker Cyrille Regis, who died aged 59 last month. Albion led early on through Egyptian defender Ahmed Hegazi but were rocked by three goals in a quarter of an hour either side of halftime. Southampton held on after Salomon Rondon's goal to secure a first win in 13 league games, leaving Albion four points adrift at the bottom with 20 points. Improving Swansea earned a valuable point with Federico Fernandez's equaliser at Leicester City, for whom Jamie Vardy scored his 13th goal of the season in all competition. Bournemouth consolidated their place in the top 10 by coming from behind to beat Stoke City 2-1 and, on a good day for the south-coast sides, Brighton and Hove Albion beat West Ham United 3-1 to draw level with them on 27 points.

Here's what Saturday's action has done to the #PL table... pic.twitter.com/mPjI8cIrfp

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 3, 2018

RESULTSArsenal 5 (Ramsey 6, 19, 74, Koscielny 14, Aubameyang 37) Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 64)Burnley 1 (Gudmundsson 82) Man City 1 (Danilo 22)Bournemouth 2 (King 70, Mousset 79) Stoke 1 (Shaqiri 5)Brighton 3 (Murray 8, Izquierdo 59, Gross 75) West Ham 1 (Hernandez 30)Leicester 1 (Vardy 17) Swansea 1 (Fernandez 53)Man Utd 2 (Lukaku 55, Sanchez 68) Huddersfield 0West Brom 2 (Hegazi 4, Rondon 72) Southampton 3 (Lemina 40, Stephens 43, Ward-Prowse 55)  SUNDAY'S MATCHESPalace v Newcastle and Liverpool v Tottenham