Emotional Frank Lampard rescued a point for champions Manchester City against former club Chelsea on Sunday while Manchester United gave up a 3-1 lead to slump to a shock 5-3 defeat at Leicester.
Lampard‘s equaliser ensured a 1-1 draw against the Premier League leaders who lost their perfect start to the league season but still moved three points clear of second-placed Southampton.
Manchester City’s English midfielder Frank Lampard applauds the Chelsea supporters after the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on September 21, 2014. The game finished 1-1. AFP PHOTO/PAUL ELLIS
It seemed Jose Mourinho’s side were set for a fifth straight league win when Andre Schurrle put them ahead in the 71st minute, shortly after City had been reduced to 10 men by the sending off of defender Pablo Zabaleta.
But former Chelsea great Lampard, only playing for City after being loaned to them by New York City, the club he left for at the end of last season, drew the hosts level five minutes from time following a typically late run into the box.
The drama at Eastlands was as nothing compared to events earlier in the day at Leicester’s King Power Stadium.
It seemed big-spenders United were on course for their first competitive away victory under Louis van Gaal after goals by Robin van Persie, Angel di Maria and Ander Herrera left them 3-1 up with just over 30 minutes remaining.
But a controversial penalty, converted by David Nugent, reduced the Foxes’ deficit to 3-2 after they had got on the scoresheet through Leonardo Ulloa.
Two minutes after Nugent’s penalty, Esteban Cambiasso drew Leicester level at 3-3 before Jamie Vardy, given time and space, made it 4-3 in the 79th minute.
Four minutes later, Ulloa made the game safe for promoted Leicester when, after United’s Tyler Blackett had been sent off for bringing down Vardy in the box, the striker scored his second goal and Leicester’s fifth from the penalty spot.
“How is it possible to give this game away?,” a disbelieving van Gaal told Sky Sports.
“We have given the game away. Leicester has proven already in four games that they have a strong character and that when they are 3-1 down, you can play all the game with more possession but you cannot do these kind of things.” Agency report
