Manchester City keep winning; Liverpool stumble again

Sports Desk, Feb 3 (efe-epa).- Manchester City beat Burnley 0-2 on Wednesday to match the 2002 Arsenal side’s mark for most consecutive victories in all competitions by a Premier League team with 13.

City, who began the day leading the league by virtue of a better goal difference than second-place Manchester United, are now 3 points ahead of their cross-town rivals with a game in hand.

Pep Guardiola’s men haven’t lost since Nov. 21, when they were bested by Tottenham Hotspur.

The 16th-place Clarets saw their strategy for getting something out of the contest at Turf Moor was shattered in the 3rd minute, when Gabriel Jesus put the visitors ahead, heading-in the rebound after goalkeeper Nick Pope made the initial stop against Bernardo Silva.

Raheem Sterling redirected Ilkay Gündogan’s cross to double the advantage for City in the 38th minute.

Burnley, with only 25 percent possession, failed to put a single shot on target and City saw out the match comfortably.

With 22 points, the Clarets are 8 clear of the drop zone.

Defending champions Liverpool trail Man City by 7 points after Wednesday’s 0-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, who climb to 15th with 24 points.

The Reds have lost two in a row at Anfield for the first time since September 2012 and have failed to score in their last three matches at home.

Fourth-place Liverpool dominated possession, but had only one shot on target to four for the Seagulls, who prevailed on the strength of Steven Alzate’s goal in the 56th minute.

Brighton would have gotten more but for host goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, playing in lieu of the ailing Alisson.

Just 2 points behind Liverpool in the fifth spot are West Ham United, 1-3 winners Wednesday over Aston Villa, who have lost four of their last six Premier League games.

Tomas Soucek opened the scoring for the Hammers in the 51st minute and Jesse Lingard had a brace in his debut with the London club after arriving on loan from Manchester United.

Ollie Watkins had the goal for Villa, who remain ninth in the table with 32 points.

Everton moved up to sixth place Wednesday with a 1-2 win against Leeds United. The Toffees led 0-2 at half-time on goals by Gylfi Sigurdsson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, his 12th of the season.

Raphinha pulled one back for the hosts three minutes into the second half and it took some heroics from Everton keeper Robin Olsen to secure all 3 points for the visitors.

Jordan Pickford’s backup made three stops in less than a minute at the hour mark as the Toffees improved to 36 points.

Leeds remain 11th in the table with 29 points.

In Wednesday’s other action, third-from-bottom Fulham extended their Premier League winless streak to 11 matches, losing 0-2 to Leicester City.

The Foxes went ahead in the 17th minute on a Kelechi Iheanacho header and James Justin made it 0-2 right before the break. James Maddison assisted on both goals.