LONDON (AP) — James Tomkins took advantage of a mistake by Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to help Crystal Palace draw 1-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday and remain winless this year.
Brighton stayed sixth, five points behind fourth-placed Newcastle.
It was a seventh consecutive match without a win for Palace, which was without injured American defender Chris Richards. Palace was seven points above the relegation zone.
Sanchez was unable to hold a Michael Olise free kick and Tomkins pounced to nod home to level in the 69th minute.
Brighton took the lead six minutes earlier when Solly March connected with Pervis Estupinan’s cross at the far post on an afternoon largely dominated by the visiting Seagulls.
The Seagulls also had a first-half goal disallowed by VAR. Estupinan thought he broke the deadlock when he curled into the top corner after 32 minutes but it was ruled out due to an offside in the buildup.
This was the first encounter between them this season after their September contest was called off due to train strikes.
Leicester 4, Tottenham 1
In Leicester, manager Antonio Conte's return to the dugout was a miserable one as his Tottenham was humiliated at Leicester 4-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Nampalys Mendy’s first goal in more than six years inspired Leicester to the comeback win after Rodrigo Bentancur briefly gave Spurs the lead.
James Maddison, Kelechi Iheanacho and Harvey Barnes also netted for the hosts and Leicester scored four for the second straight game.
Conte returned after gallbladder surgery but his team failed to build on its impressive victory over Manchester City. The error-strewn performance left it a point adrift of the top four having played two games more. Tottenham visits AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday.
For Leicester, its second revival of the season continues after last week’s 4-2 win at Aston Villa.
Victory even came after a poor start where it gifted Tottenham a 14th-minute opener as Leicester defender Victor Kristiansen attempted to clear a corner but succeeded in only finding Bentancur who tapped in from close range.
Spurs were on top but it took just 11 minutes for the Foxes to turn the game. They had barely threatened but levelled through an unlikely source.
Mendy had not scored in his previous 108 Leicester appearances after joining in 2016 but when Bentancur’s header reached the midfielder on the edge of the box he unleashed an angled rocket which flew past Fraser Forster.
Two minutes later, it got better for the hosts and captain for the day Maddison. Ben Davies’ loose pass was cleared by Wout Faes to Iheanacho, who turned and found the unmarked Maddison to sweep in his ninth goal of the season.
Leicester was suddenly rampant and Forster kept out Iheanacho as the Spurs defence imploded.
It was a game littered with errors and Spurs added another gaffe to the catalogue when the Foxes went 3-1 up in first-half injury time.
Harry Souttar launched a clearance upfield and Iheanacho was given too much space to run at Eric Dier. He checked inside to the edge of the area, dummied and then found the bottom corner.
Ragged Tottenham hardly improved after the break and Forster needed to save from Barnes.
With 20 minutes remaining, the visitors needed VAR to rescue them when Barnes converted Iheanacho’s pass. But there was no stopping the winger adding a fourth and sealing victory 11 minutes later.
The generous Tottenham defence first allowed Maddison to advance and slip Barnes in and he turned and beat Forster from 20 yards.
Fulham 2, Notts Forest 0
In London, Fulham ended Nottingham Forest’s five-game unbeaten run in the English Premier League with a deserved 2-0 win at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
A goal in either half from Willian and substitute Manor Solomon earned Marco Silva’s team a first victory in four matches and lifted it up to seventh in the standings.
Forest remained just six points above the relegation zone after a subdued performance.
The visitor endured a cruel and record-breaking blow after only seven minutes, losing central defensive pair Willy Boly and Scott McKenna to injury — the earliest in league history that a team replaced two of the starting XI.
Fulham did not need long to take advantage of Forest’s misfortune.
Bobby Decordova-Reid's cross was only half-cleared by Renan Lodi and the ball fell to Willian, who cut inside the Forest defender and blasted a shot into the top corner in the 20th minute for Fulham’s first league goal since Jan. 12.
Forest, clearly rocked by its early bad luck, was clinging on. Decordova-Reid smacked the crossbar with a crisp, flying drive from 25 yards that had Navas beaten, then Andreas Pereira collected Willian’s ball inside and hit a curling shot with his left foot that went just wide.
The second half brought little respite for Cooper’s side as Fulham’s confidence and control of the game started to build.
Cooper sent on Jonjo Shelvey for his Forest debut in search of greater presence in midfield, but the direction of the tide would not turn. Instead, it was Fulham which struck the woodwork for a third time when Pereira’s 25-yard free kick bounced off the crossbar.
Finally, Forest threatened as Emmanuel Dennis fired narrowly over in the 65th and, moments later, Serge Aurier's header was brilliantly beaten away at point-blank range by Bernd Leno.
Forest kept up a vague, lingering threat almost until the end, but it was Fulham which had the last word when substitute Solomon, on for the excellent Willian, drilled past Keylor Navas two minutes from time for his first Fulham goal since joining from Ukrainian team Shakhtar Donetsk in the offseason.
Chelsea 1, West Ham 1
In London, João Félix’s second match for Chelsea went better than his first.
The Portugal forward scored his first goal for the club in a 1-1 draw at West Ham in the Premier League on Saturday on his return from a three-game suspension following a sending-off on his debut a month ago.
Félix guided home a volley off a cross from another new signing, Enzo Fernandez, in the 16th minute only for Emerson Palmieri — a former Chelsea player — to equalize in the 28th.
It was a third straight draw for Chelsea’s expensively assembled team, which is languishing in midtable in what increasingly appears a forlorn bid to qualify for the Champions League.
In an action-packed finale, West Ham had a goal by Tomas Soucek disallowed for an offside in the buildup and Chelsea had appeals for a penalty waved away after Soucek appeared to handle the ball when blocking Conor Gallagher’s shot.
Wolves 2 Southampton 1
In Southhampton, João Gomes scored in the 87th minute to help 10-man Wolverhampton complete a 2-1 comeback victory over last-placed Southampton in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Gomes' clinical strike came 15 minutes after Jan Bednarek's own goal canceled out Carlos Alcaraz's first-half goal for Southampton.
The manner of the loss — allowing two goals despite playing more than an hour with a man advantage — was sure to pile more pressure on Saints manager Nathan Jones.
Gomes, a Brazilian midfielder who joined the club last month, scored after his first attempt was blocked. He calmly fired his rebound into the top right corner of the net at St. Mary’s Stadium.
Bednarek blocked Adama Traoré's close-range shot but bundled the ball over his own goal-line as he turned to try to clear it in the 72nd minute.
Alcaraz, a 20-year-old Argentine midfielder who joined the Saints last month, put the hosts ahead in the 24th on a second-effort shot that went in off the left post.
Wolverhampton went down a man three minutes later when Mario Lemina picked up his second yellow card and was sent off after appearing to complain to referee Jarred Gillett about a non-call.
Coming off a 3-0 win over Liverpool, Wolverhampton has won back-to-back league games for the first time this season.
Bournemouth 1, Newcastle 1
In Bournemouth, Miguel Almiron’s 10th goal of the season and a late goalline clearance by Kieran Trippier ensured Newcastle manager Eddie Howe claimed a point on his Bournemouth return in a 1-1 draw in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Marcos Senesi put the struggling Cherries ahead in the 30th minute and even though Almiron equalized in first-half stoppage time, Newcastle could not arrest its stuttering form and slumped to a fifth draw from its last six league games.
It may have been worse had Trippier not cleared off the line from Dominic Solanke’s goalbound flick in second-half stoppage time.
That ensured the visitors extended their unbeaten top-flight run to 17 matches but injuries to Joe Willock, Almiron and Allan Saint-Maximin will be a major concern to Howe with the League Cup final only two weeks away.
Howe made his first return to the south-coast club since he departed in 2020 but a knock in training denied Callum Wilson the chance to face his old team, too.
Newcastle is in fourth place, two points ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham.
