London (AFP) – Kevin De Bruyne missed a penalty as Manchester City squandered the chance to close the gap on Liverpool on Sunday while Tottenham’s Harry Kane celebrated joining the Premier League’s 150 club.
A win at the Etihad would have taken the Reds to the summit but they were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw in a battle between the two dominant powers over the past two seasons.
That meant Leicester clung onto top spot after leapfrogging Spurs with a 1-0 win at home to Wolves.
Jurgen Klopp’s champions made an aggressive start against City, with Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota all in a fearsome-looking starting line-up.
The visitors went ahead in the 13th minute when Salah converted a penalty after Kyle Walker clipped Mane in the box.
City drew level just after the half-hour mark when De Bruyne picked out Gabriel Jesus in the area with his back to goal. The City striker cleverly turned past Trent Alexander-Arnold and poked past Alisson Becker.
City were awarded a penalty themselves just before the interval after a VAR check when Joe Gomez was unable to get his arm out of the way of a De Bruyne cross but the Belgian skewed wide.
The draw left Liverpool in third place on 17 points after eight games, one behind Leicester and five clear of City, who have a game in hand.
– Kane reaches 150 goals –
Earlier, Kane headed in a late winner in a 1-0 victory against struggling West Brom to briefly lift Jose Mourinho’s side to the top of the table after their fourth win in five league games.
Only Alan Shearer and Sergio Aguero have scored 150 Premier League goals in fewer appearances than Kane, who reached the landmark in his 218th match.
Mourinho was effusive in his praise for his star striker, who also has 10 assists in all competitions this season.
“Harry Kane, you have to say has this many goals, this many assists, this number of balls recovered, this number of duels won, this number of balls that he saved his team in a defensive set-piece,” he said.
“This is Harry Kane. It’s goals plus this and this and this and that.”
The landmark effort for Kane, who scored his 200th Tottenham goal in all competitions against Ludogorets on Thursday, was perfectly timed after they had laboured to break down stubborn Albion.
Mourinho started with Kane, Gareth Bale and Son Heung-min in his front three for the first time, and while the latter two were quiet, Kane was on hand to clinch Tottenham’s third successive league victory.
Spurs are now unbeaten in their past seven league games but were below their best for long periods against a West Brom team still without a league win this term.
Son wasted an early chance but the home side had opportunities of their own through Karlan Grant, Kyle Bartley and Jake Livermore.
Kane finally broke Albion’s resistance in the 88th minute when Matt Doherty’s cross caused indecision from Johnstone and the England captain arrived to flick a header into the far corner.
But Spurs’ stay at the top of the Premier League table was short-lived as Jamie Vardy netted his eighth Premier League goal of the season for Leicester.
Vardy scored the decisive goal from the penalty spot in the 15th minute — following a VAR check — after Max Kilman handled Dennis Praet’s cross in the area.
But he blew a chance to make it 2-0 when he was denied by Rui Patricio late in the first half after James Justin was brought down in the box but Brendan Rodgers’ team held on to win all three points.
“I think we had a real challenge in this first part of the season with the players we had out… the team have been fantastic,” Rodgers told Sky Sports.
“We had to show different sides to our game today and thankfully we’ve come through.”
Arsenal host Aston Villa in the late kick-off.
