Liverpool prevented Manchester City from pulling further clear at the top of the standings but an eventful 1-1 draw featuring an own-goal equalizer from Joleon Lescott and the third red card of Mario Balotelli’s City career seemed unimportant after news hours earlier that Wales manager Gary Speed had been found dead at age 42.
The Anfield crowd observed a minute’s silence before the game in honor of Speed. Asked to do the same, the fans at Swansea’s 0-0 draw with Aston Villa instead opted for an impromptu minute’s applause and chanted Speed’s name.
Villa goalkeeper Shay Given was in tears thinking of his former Newcastle teammate, while Wales striker Craig Bellamy was so upset he was left out of Liverpool’s squad.“It is a devastating loss for football and my heart goes out to Gary Speed’s family,” Villa manager Alex McLeish said. “We would have understood if Swansea had wanted to cancel the game. We would certainly have agreed with that.”
Four members of Speed’s Wales squad were involved at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium in south Wales. Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Joe Allen started for the home side and James Collins lined up for Villa.
“We decided from our end that we wanted to play as a mark of respect for Gary because he was a great man of football,” Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers said. “It is just so sad. He had been doing a fantastic job for Wales, and it’s a sad day for football.”
The match was drab, with substitute Leroy Lita firing narrowly wide with Swansea’s best chance.
The game at Anfield was more eventful as Liverpool did old rival Manchester United a favor by becoming only the second team this season to stop unbeaten City winning in the Premier League.
It meant that second-place United did not pay too dearly for dropping two points against Newcastle on Saturday.
Vincent Kompany put City ahead in the 31st minute when he glanced a header into the top corner from David Silva’s corner kick, but Lescott’s outstretched leg deflected Charlie Adam’s shot past goalkeeper Joe Hart just two minutes later.
Balotelli charged about the field after replacing Samir Nasri in the 65th minute, getting his first yellow card for pulling back Glen Johnson by the shoulder and the second six minutes later for leading with his arm while challenging Martin Skrtel for an aerial ball.
Sent from the field, Balotelli seemed to remonstrate with manager Roberto Mancini before being escorted down the tunnel by a policeman. But Mancini said he had no concerns over the striker, who reportedly damaged the door to the away team’s changing room.
“He didn’t deserve the second yellow card,” Mancini said. “We don’t have any problem. Mario is young. I think he was disappointed with the yellow card.”
Hart then made saves from Luis Suarez and—with a spectacular one-handed stop—from substitute Andy Carroll. Silva could have won it for 10-man City at the other end with a breakaway but his shot was blocked on the line by one of a trio of covering defenders.
“Manchester City are a top side and have top players and we knew it would be difficult,” Adam said. “But we stuck to our guns and we played well.”
With 11 wins and two draws from 13 games, City leads defending champion United by five points. United, which last season surpassed Liverpool’s 21-year-old record of 18 English titles, drew 1-1 with Newcastle following the award of a contentious penalty to the visitors.
Liverpool is in sixth place, ahead of Arsenal on goal difference. Arsenal drew 1-1 with Fulham on Saturday when Gunners defender Thomas Vermaelen scored at both ends.
Also Saturday, third-place Tottenham moved to within two points of Manchester United when Emmanuel Adebayor scored twice for a 3-1 win at West Bromwich Albion, and Chelsea beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-0 through three first-half goals.
Wigan beat Sunderland 2-1 and was replaced at the bottom of the standings by Blackburn, which lost 3-1 at Stoke. Everton rose to eighth place as Marouane Fellaini and Apostolos Vellios scored second-half goals for a 2-0 win at Bolton, while Norwich trail the Toffees only on goal difference after a 2-1 win over Queens Park Rangers.
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