If anything got shaken up in the Premier League on Saturday, it was probably the relegation race. Aston Villa look something better than hopeless at the moment, while Newcastle hauled themselves out of the drop zone and Bournemouth put in their most impressive performance of the season against relegation rivals Norwich. West Brom, who have a decent buffer on the other candidates to go down, got blown out. It's a wide-open seven-team race at the bottom.
Near the top, Spurs and City both one while Leicester salvaged a point to stay top. None of that is great news for Arsenal, Manchester United or Liverpool, who all play on Sunday.
Saturday's scores
Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 Sunderland
AFC Bournemouth 3-0 Norwich City
Chelsea 3-3 Everton
Manchester City 4-0 Crystal Palace
Newcastle 2-1 West Ham United
Southampton 3-0 West Bromwich Albion
Aston Villa 1-1 Leicester City
Chelsea shouldn't have grabbed a point. John Terry doesn't care.
Chelsea grabbed a point in the 98th minute against Everton, with John Terry making up for an earlier own goal by scoring the latest of late equalizers. He was almost certainly offside, something that didn't bother him one bit.
"I'm not sure [if I was offside] to be honest," said Terry, "I'm out of breath. I'm not sure and I don't really care. It's my first one this season. It's an important one because we are still undefeated since the manager [Hiddink] came."
Unlike Terry, Roberto Martinez cared quite a bit. He criticized the officials after the match.
Aston Villa: now kind of decent maybe?
The last 180 minutes have paved a brilliant path forward for this club to push on with. Played great against the leaders today.
— 7500 To Holte (@7500toHolte) January 16, 2016
Have some belief. We’re on 12 now, and with WBA, West Ham and Norwich our next three fixtures, we’ve got a shot to get back in it. #UTV
— 7500 To Holte (@7500toHolte) January 16, 2016
Obviously, it’s rough. You’ve put in a performance, got a result, and lose ground in the race. But play like this for 16 more games… maybe.
— 7500 To Holte (@7500toHolte) January 16, 2016
Things are still a bit bleak for Aston Villa. They're on 12 points, nine away from safety. But they played very well in a comeback draw against table-toppers Leicester City on Saturday, which followed a victory over Crystal Palace in their last match. It looks like they've turned a corner. Villa might be too far behind to stay up, but they look like they'll be able to put some pressure on the rest of the teams battling the drop.
Manchester City are scary when Sergio Aguero is fit
Saturday's 4-0 win over Palace featured what was probably the best performance of Sergio Aguero's injury-riddled season to date. He was spectacular, scoring twice and passing up a chance to score a hat trick by assisting David Silva's late goal.
"In the last game, he didn't score because [Tim] Howard made two beautiful saves," said Manuel Pellegrini after the game. "But he was making all the moves he normally does when he is 100% fit. In every game, he will continue to improve."
If this was Aguero at 90 percent or so, City are probably the best team in the league when he's fully fit.
Spurs are awake again
Spurs came into their game against Sunderland on the back of three consecutive bad performances. They fell apart in the second half of a draw against Everton, got outplayed in a draw against Leicester in the FA Cup, then lost to the Foxes in the Premier League a few days later. Their slump carried into Saturday, with Jermain Defoe putting Sunderland on top early, but Spurs bounced back. Christian Eriksen was the biggest reason.
He cleaned up a rebound to pull Spurs level at halftime. Then, in the second half, he produced the gorgeous goal above. And even without the goals, he was Spurs' best player, transitioning defense to attack and orchestrating passing moves when Sunderland was packed tight in the final third. When he's at his best, Spurs look like a clear top-four team.