The NBA on Monday agreed to reduce the length a vaccinated, asymptomatic player must quarantine from 10 to six days, according to a memo obtained by ESPN.
The Suns (26-6) hosted the Grizzlies on Monday night and play the Oklahoma City Thunder at home on Wednesday night before traveling to Boston on Dec. 31.
Backup center JaVale McGee started in place of Ayton. He had six points and fouled out after playing just 22 minutes.
Ayton, 23, has averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds in 24 games this season.
Cameroon football legend Samuel Eto’o owes nearly one million euros in taxes from his time in Spain, local authorities said Monday.
The 40-year-old, who earlier this month was elected president of the Cameroon Football Federation, appeared on a list published by the Spanish tax office of people and companies that owe over 600,000 euros ($678,000).
The former striker is listed as owing 981,598.19 euros to the Spanish tax office.
The four-time African player of the year played for a series of Spanish clubs, including Real Madrid and Barcelona, before retiring from football in 2019.
Contacted by AFP, a tax office spokesman said he was not authorised to give details on the player’s tax debt.
Spanish public prosecutors in 2016 accused Eto’o of conspiring to evade 3.9 million euros in taxes owed on income from his image rights when he was playing for FC Barcelona.
Over 7,200 names appeared on the tax office list that was published on Monday, including Twitter and Spanish TV personality Kiko Matamoros.
Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian forward Neymar topped the annual list last year, with the tax office saying at the time he owed 34.6 million euros from when he played for FC Barcelona from 2013-17.
Spain has cracked down on footballers for not paying their fair share in taxes in recent years, including Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sergio Perez joined Red Bull in a season when the team was locked down in an intense title fight with Mercedes, the Mexican admitting he was under pressure, with everyone watching him.
Perez didn’t have the luxury of taking his time to settle down at Red Bull, as the team’s 2021 Formula 1 season was a vigorous fight with Mercedes over top honours from the first race in Bahrain, with high expectations from the former Racing Point driver to support Max Verstappen in his quest for a maiden F1 Title.
Perez was his excellent self during races but usually struggled to get close to Verstappen during qualifying meaning he was not close to the front enough to be a factor in the title fight, but he developed over the course of the season and ended up delivering the best support role for his teammate in Abu Dhabi, keeping Hamilton at bay with some impressive defending, giving Verstappen the chance to catch up with the Briton.
Perez had a very intense season
Perez spoke to Autosport about his 2021 season summing it up as: “Very intense. It’s been extremely intensive. A lot of work has been done behind the scenes, a lot of pressure.
“When you are at Red Bull Racing the pressure is on and everyone is watching you, what you do and you guys are obviously a lot harder to a Red Bull driver, which is very understandable.
“But it hasn’t been easy, but it has brought me onto another level, and having Max as a team-mate it really pushes you to new levels,” he went on, revealing: “I’m enjoying it a lot at this point of my career, I’m very happy, and that’s the most important.”
“He’s really good. He’s really at one with the car,” the 31-year-old said of Verstappen. “He’s very good in qualifying, he’s really good at the races.
“He’s very complete, experienced,” he added. “I mean, the season he has done I think it’s been legend, you know, it’s really impressive, and big praise to him. He’s really at one with the car.”
Perez lacked consistency
The Red Bull driver, who was awarded for his efforts by a contract extension for 2022, admitted that he lacked consistency this year, a key area he needed to work on.
“When you are out of position and so on… I think the main thing I lacked was consistency to constantly be at 100% with the car,” Perez reflected.
“I have to raise my game for next year. And yeah, hopefully, we are all able to go forward,” he hoped.
Although Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship, Perez was also relishing his teammate’s success, especially that he was able lend him a hand at certain points in the season.
“Honestly it does,” Perez said, when asked if Verstappen’s triumph meant a lot, “because Max has been a great teammate since day one to me, and the team has been fantastic to me. And I was in a position to support my teammate.
“I’m extremely happy for everyone. You know, it’s a shame at the end, we didn’t get the constructors’, but I think it was just a couple of points at the end.
“And some bad luck here and there. But I look forward to next year,” the veteran of 213 grands prix, concluded.
Despite his early struggles, Perez was able to win for the first time in Red Bull colors at Baku, on a day when he was able to capitalize on a chaotic race, as Verstappen haplessly crashed out from the lead due to a tyre failure, and Lewis Hamilton making one of his rare errors locking his brakes on the post-red-flag race restart, finishing out of the points.
As we enter the final week of 2021, let’s review some of the wise, wild and outright weird wagers that stood out this year.
We begin in Carteret, New Jersey, where a 64-year-old bettor was sweating what could be the largest win of his betting career.
1. In the history of Caesars Sportsbook, 112 25-leg parlays have cashed. None of them, though, was anything like the 25-teamer Kevin LaRose hit on Dec. 11.
Typically, successful 25-leg parlays are loaded with giant money-line favorites that dramatically reduce the payouts. According to Caesars Sportsbook, the most a 25-team parlay has ever won was $3,400.
LaRose’s 25-teamer paid $237,553.11 off a $25 bet. You can see the legs here.
The parlay featured 15 money-line bets — 13 in college basketball, two in the NBA — and 10 spread bets in college hoops. LaRose identified his teams in the morning but didn’t place the bet until around 3 p.m.
“I don’t watch this, because college basketball is nuts,” LaRose, who works in construction in Carteret, told ESPN. “You could be down by 20 and win by 20. It’s really wacky. That’s why I don’t like to watch it. I’d rather listen to some nice music and hang out, and I’ll check the app every once in a while.”
The parlay began with UCLA beating Marquette, survived a scare with Richmond overcoming a 17-point deficit to beat Toledo and eventually came down to a showdown between Wyoming (-8) and Utah Valley State.
After a day of construction work and sushi, LaRose settled down with his wife, Ann Marie, for the stretch run. The couple tracked the score online. Wyoming led by 12 at the half. Utah Valley State opened the second half with a 20-5 run to take the lead. But the Cowboys answered and maintained at least a 9-point lead in the final minutes en route to a 74-62 win.
“We had a bottle of wine ready,” LaRose said. “We stayed up until 4:30 in the morning. I couldn’t sleep anyway, bro. I put the [sportsbook] screen on, after we won the bet. It says, ‘Congratulations, you won $237,000.’ I took a picture of it with my phone. I’ll keep that picture.”
2. A bettor with FanDuel placed an $8, 12-leg parlay featuring each match result of the final day of the Ryder Cup in September. The unidentified bettor, who is based in Illinois, nailed every result, including both ties, as Team USA sealed the victory. The bettor won $966,290 off the $8 wager.
3. In Week 9 of the NFL season, a bettor with FanDuel correctly predicted the exact score on the Sunday night and Monday night games on a $1 parlay that paid $54,471. The bettor had the Cowboys to beat the Vikings 20-16 at odds of 270-1 and the Chiefs to defeat the Giants 20-17 at odds of 200-1.
4. On Sept. 27, a bettor with DraftKings hit a $0.10 16-leg soccer parlay at odds of +67,498,814. With the longest odds of any bet to win this year at DraftKings, the 10-cent parlay paid $67,498.91.
5. This summer, a bettor based in London hit a $15.50 six-leg parlay that featured two soccer matches in Euro 2020 and the outright winners in four of the week’s golf tournaments. The odds? 90,396-1, according to Betfair, an online sportsbook and betting exchange in the United Kingdom, which paid out $1.36 million after Harris English won the Travelers Championship on the eighth hole of a playoff, the longest playoff in a PGA Tour event in the past nine years.
The legs of the parlay and odds were:
• Croatia to defeat Scotland (+140) • England to defeat Czech Republic (-182) • Steve Striker to win the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship (+500) • Nelly Korda to win the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (+1,400) • Viktor Hovland to win the BMW International Open (+650) • Harris English to win the Travelers Championship (+3,500)
6. Speaking of golf, on Nov. 24, a bettor with the SuperBook in Las Vegas placed a $1,046 bet on Tiger Woods to win the 2022 Masters at 100-1. Woods has not played a PGA Tour event since suffering serious injuries in a car accident in February.
7. On the Wednesday before the first round of the PGA Championship, a bettor in New Jersey placed a $1,000 bet on Phil Mickelson to win the tournament with DraftKings at 300-1 odds. Mickelson defied the odds to win his sixth major title, and the bettor won a net $300,000.
8. In October, a bettor in Virginia with WynnBET decided to parlay the Dodgers to beat the Giants in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series with Northern Illinois to win the MAC championship game for $1,000 at +3,373 odds. The Dodgers beat the Giants 7-2, behind two home runs from Will Smith and another from Mookie Betts. One month later, Northern Illinois upset Kent State as a 4-point underdog in a 41-23 win in the MAC championship game, and the bettor in Virginia won $34,725.
9. On Dec. 6, a bettor with BetMGM placed a $257,267 wager that neither the Patriots nor Bills would score 40 or points in their Monday night game in Buffalo at -10,000 odds. Winds gusted to 40 mph, prompting the Patriots to attempt only three passes in a 14-10 win. The bettor won a net $2,573.
10. Eli Sawaged, a 29-year-old pharmacy technician in Colorado, hit a $10, 11-team parlay full of NCAA tournament underdogs to pull outright upsets, including 15-seed Oral Roberts over 2-seed Ohio State. Twelve-seed Oregon State upset 5-seed Oklahoma State to cap the parlay that, at 3,320-1, paid just over $33,000.
11. In mid-February, a bettor with BetMGM placed a $10,000 wager on the Washington Wizards to win the NBA title at 500-1 odds for a chance at $5 million. The Wizards were 9-17 at the time. They would rally to make the playoffs but lost in a first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers.
12. Nine bettors in New Jersey spotted a bookmaker’s typo on a proposition wager on Baker Mayfield and Patrick Mahomes offered by BetMGM. The sportsbook had intended to list odds on Mayfield and Mahomes each throwing for 300 or more yards in their playoff game between the Browns and Chiefs. However, the “3” was erroneously dropped from the odds, and nine bettors were able to pounce on the “yes” for a total of $10,500.
13. Touting his improved golf game, Charles Barkley said that he bet $100,000 on himself to finish in the top 70 in the American Century Championship celebrity tournament. Barkley said he got 8-1 on the wager. Barkley finished in a tie for 76th.
14. On June 2, a bettor with BetMGM won $1 million off a $400,000 money-line bet on the underdog Dallas Mavericks to beat the LA Clippers on June 2. Luka Doncic poured in 42 points, leading the Mavericks to a 105-100 victory as +250 underdogs.
15. On March 19, a bettor in Nevada placed a $30,000 bet on Shohei Ohtani to win American League MVP at 30-1 odds. Ohtani hit 46 home runs with 100 RBIs and also went 9-2 with 156 strikeouts as a starting pitcher. He was named MVP in November, costing Caesars Sportsbook a seven-figure loss on an awards market that generally doesn’t attract significant betting interest.
16. Week 9 featured two big NFL upsets, and a bettor in Colorado nailed them both. Sportsbook MaximBet reported taking a pair of $8,000 money-line bets from the same bettor on the Broncos over the Cowboys and on the Jaguars over the Bills. Combined, the bettor won $86,400 when the Broncos and Jaguars pulled off outright upsets as double-digit underdogs.
17. A betting syndicate duped sportsbooks by taking advantage of a bookmaker’s mistake on the over/under total in the WNBA All-Star Game in July. The total opened at 248.5 and dropped 53 points, closing at 195.5.
18. In late October, a 35-year-old small business owner from northern New Jersey placed a $1,000 bet on New York Jets quarterback Mike White to have the most passing yards of any quarterback in Week 8 at 125-1 odds. White passed for 405 yards, leading the underdog Jets to a 34-31 win over the favored Cincinnati Bengals. He finished with the most passing yards for the week, and the bettor won a net $125,000.
19. In Week 7, a bettor with PointsBet hit a $100 eight-leg, same-game parlay on Colts-49ers that paid $97,560.96.
The eight legs were:
• Colts money line • Over 41.5 • Carson Wentz under 190.5 passing yards • Jimmy Garoppolo under 198.5 passing yards • Elijah Mitchell over 75 yards rushing • Jonathan Taylor over 100 yards rushing • Elijah Mitchell anytime touchdown • Jonathan Taylor anytime touchdown.
20. A bettor with Caesars Sportsbook placed a $50,000 money-line bet on Gonzaga to beat Dixie State in the season opener on Nov. 9. Gonzaga won by 34 points, and the bettor won a net $714.30.
21. On Oct. 8, Caesars Sportsbook reported taking its largest college football bet of the season: a $569,738.60 three-team money-line parlay featuring three powerhouse favorites that would pay a net $105,656.
The legs were:
• Ohio State (-1,600) over Maryland • Cincinnati (-7,000) over Temple • Alabama (-1,000) over Texas A&M.
Ohio State and Cincinnati cruised to wins, but Alabama stumbled, losing to Texas A&M in its only defeat of the season.
Odds & Ends
Note: Stats entering final week of 2021, per ESPN Stats & Information.
• Favorites in NFL, NBA, college football and college basketball are a combined 3,571-3,468-121 (50.7%) against the spread.
• Biggest upset by point spread: NFL: Jaguars (+15.5) over Bills in Week 9. NBA: Rockets (+14) over Bucks on April 29. CFB: Louisiana-Monroe (+32.5) over Liberty on Oct. 16. CBB: Texas Southern (+23.5) over Florida on Dec. 6.
ESPN Stats & Information researcher Mackenzie Kraemer contributed to this article.
The NHL is emerging from an extended holiday break with taxi squads and other roster revisions, a move made to guard against more disruptions to the season amid more players and coaches going into COVID-19 protocol Sunday.
Each team will be allowed to have a taxi squad of up to six players and to make emergency recalls from the minors if COVID-19 absences would cause anyone to play without a full lineup. Taxi squads, which were used during the shortened 2021 season, are set to be in effect until at least the All-Star break in early February.
Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the new roster rules in an email to The Associated Press.
“Any relief is welcome, believe me,” said Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito, who is eager to see how the flexibility might help. “It’s tough. What if all your goalies get it? What are you going to do? We’ve been through, as a management team, any number of scenarios surrounding the `what-ifs’ _ or maybe we’re kidding ourselves and we should be thinking about the `whens,’ as far as who gets it and when.”
Story continues below advertisement
Under the new provisions, any team shy of having 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders available can bring up a player from the American Hockey League without playing a game with fewer than the usual 18 skaters. Emergency recalls also can be made of players with salary-cap hits of up to $1 million, an increase from the previous $850,000 limit.
Players on the taxi squad will count as being in the minors for cap purposes. They can be there for a maximum of 20 days.
The goal of the changes is to keep the NHL season going after 64 games already have been postponed for coronavirus-related reasons. All 14 games initially scheduled for Monday previously were postponed to allow for analyzing of COVID-19 tests taken Sunday by players, coaches and staff upon returning to team facilities.
Beijing Olympics organizers express ‘regret’ over NHL players not attending
Beijing Olympics organizers express ‘regret’ over NHL players not attending
“It’s my understanding that every game that is scheduled now will be played, unless for whatever reason there is a change,” said New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello, whose team is scheduled to play again Wednesday. “Every indication we have (is) we will be playing. We have no indication that we will not be playing.”
The return to team facilities also brought the predictable result of additions to the COVID-19 protocol list across the league.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lighting added goaltenders Andrei Vasilevskiy and Brian Elliott, defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and assistant coach Rob Zettler to the list. The Islanders added forwards Anthony Beauvillier, Cal Clutterbuck, Zach Parise, and Oliver Wahlstrom and activated Mathew Barzal.
Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen, forwards Jason Robertson, Joel Kiviranta, Radek Faksa and Michael Raffl, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ryan Ellis, Buffalo Sabres forwards Dylan Cozens and Mark Jankowski and coach Don Granato, Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau and Boston Bruins center Charlie Coyle also entered protocol.
The Sabres said Cozens, Jankowski and Granato were asymptomatic. The team canceled a scheduled practice, which was to be Buffalo’s first since Dec. 18.
The NHL began its annual Christmas break a day earlier than anticipated last week amid a rapid increase of positive COVID-19 test results among players. At the time, more than a quarter of the league’s 32 teams were shut down because of outbreaks.
Because of its seven teams based in Canada, the NHL cannot follow the lead of the NFL by not doing blanket testing of fully vaccinated, asymptomatic players. Lamoriello said league officials are doing their best without any control over rules and restrictions set out by the Canadian federal and provincial governments.
Story continues below advertisement
“Unless we weren’t playing in Canada and we didn’t have teams in Canada, you could consider that, and certainly it would be (considered),” Lamoriello said of adjusting testing requirements. “But with the guidelines and rules of Canada, it’s impossible to have happen. We wouldn’t be able to have games without the testing that is required to play in Canada.”
NHL, players’ association announce 4-day shutdown ending Boxing Day
NHL, players’ association announce 4-day shutdown ending Boxing Day
A lack of widespread booster availability in Canada could also stunt efforts by the NHL to make an extra dose of a COVID-19 part of being considered fully vaccinated, like the NBA has done.
Several NHL teams returned to practice Sunday, including the Calgary Flames, who last played Dec. 11 and had been shut down because of a virus outbreak that included 20 players and 13 staff ending up in COVID-19 protocol.
AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds and The Canadian Press contributed.
The final ranking, along with other criteria, puts the field at 83 players.
The list also includes Tiger Woods, who is recovering from severe injuries to his right leg from a Feb. 23 car crash. He has not determined whether he will be able to walk and compete at Augusta National on April 8-11.
Woods played the PNC Championship this week with his 12-year-old son, though he was riding a cart and has said he remains a long way off before he can play at the tour level.
Augusta National prefers to keep the field for the Masters at under 100 players, a target it has met every year dating to 1966 and would appear to be on pace to continue.
Players still can qualify by winning a PGA Tour event that offers full FedEx Cup points or by getting into the top 50 in the world on March 27, a full week before the tournament. There also is a spot reserved for next month’s Latin American Amateur Championship.
Finishing at No. 50 in the world at the end of the year was Takumi Kanaya of Japan, whose 67 in the final round of the last Japan Golf Tour event moved him up to third place.
Kanaya will be one of three Asia-Pacific Amateur champions from Japan in the field, joining current champion and world No. 1 amateur Keita Nakajima and defending champion Hideki Matsuyama.
Novak Djokovic will not play in the ATP Cup ahead of the Australian Open, where his participation is in doubt because he refuses to say if he has been vaccinated against Covid-19, his team have told Serbian newspaper Blic.
“It is 99 percent sure that Novak won’t go to the ATP Cup. He is training here (in Belgrade) but he has decided to give that tournament a miss,” an unnamed member of his team said.
The ATP Cup in Sydney is a team tournament that traditionally kicks off the men’s season.
World number one Djokovic could win a record 21st Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, which starts on January 17, but to enter Australia he and members of his entourage will have to be vaccinated and the 34-year-old has previously expressed his opposition to the vaccine.
His father Srdjan said in late November that Djokovic would probably not play the Australian Open and accused the organisers of “blackmail”.
MILWAUKEE — Although Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo would never prefer to sit out for an extended stretch of games, he acknowledged after Milwaukee’s 117-113 victory over the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day that his stint in the NBA’s health and safety protocols gave him an opportunity for a much-needed mental and physical break.
Antetokounmpo missed five games after testing positive for COVID-19, but in his first game since Dec. 13, he didn’t miss a step. He scored 29 of his 36 points in the second half, adding 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks to lead the Bucks to a comeback victory over the Celtics after trailing by as many as 19 points.
“He gutted it out. You could see the fatigue,” Bucks forward Wesley Matthews said. “But he’s just one of those guys. He’s a robot; he’s a machine. He tells himself he feels no pain. He keeps going, he keeps attacking, he keeps putting pressure on everybody. The greatest thing about him is, he’s not content with any of it.”
Boston held Antetokounmpo to only five shots in the paint as the Celtics started off fast in the first half, but Antetokounmpo was much better at getting to the rim in the second half, finishing 9-for-12 in the paint after halftime.
And he was able to impose his will defensively, as well, meeting Jayson Tatum at the rim with eight seconds remaining in the game and forcing Tatum to pass the ball to Robert Williams III, which resulted in a block by Antetokounmpo on the recovery.
“He’s got that extra ability to make multiple-effort plays defensively with his length,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said of Antetokounmpo. “He can cover so much ground and be just impactful.”
Antetokounmpo said he was surprised after initially testing positive for the virus but that he eventually started to experience some mild symptoms during his quarantine stint. However, he spent most of the time in his basement just trying to keep himself busy — “watching movies, bunch of snacks, bunch of fluids,” he said — before he was able to return to the court for individual workouts the past two days.
“I’m not going to lie: I enjoyed it,” Antetokounmpo said. “Selfishly, I think I needed the break. But at the end of the day, when you turn on the TV and see your teammates … guys out there fighting to try and win a game, you’re like, ‘Man, you want to be out there.'”
Injuries and illness have depleted the Bucks’ rotation for several stretches this season, but Saturday’s game was one of Milwaukee’s healthiest since the start of the campaign. Antetokounmpo cleared health and safety protocols along with Bobby Portis and Donte DiVincenzo, who was playing in his first game since he had ankle surgery during the first round of last year’s playoffs.
“It was weird: It literally went from seven or eight players to like 15,” Milwaukee guard Jrue Holiday said. “It was hard to do layup lines because we didn’t have enough people. Now it’s crowded. The locker room is so much louder now, so many more people. But I’d rather have that.”
Even with their lineup in flux so frequently, the Bucks have still been one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Consider their performance in crunch time on Saturday as an example.
The Bucks contested five of the Celtics’ six field goal attempts in clutch time, holding Boston to four points on 1 of 6 shooting. Meanwhile, Milwaukee’s Big Three combined to score eight of its final 11 points on offense (3 of 6 shooting) during that stretch, and a steal from Holiday on Tatum set up a 3-pointer from Matthews to give the Bucks a lead with 30 seconds remaining.
“We’ve got to keep connecting with one another,” Antetokounmpo said. “I feel like we’ve not played so much with one another. A guy comes back, a guy gets in health and safety protocol. A guy comes back, a guy gets injured. We have to connect as much as possible, even in practice or the game just to keep that chemistry going. Because I think we have a very great team, and if we stay humble and stay hungry, great things are going to happen to us in the future.”
The anticipated dynamic between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell at Mercedes next year is one of the major talking points ahead of the 2022 Formula 1 season; Damon Hill gives his view.
Mercedes will have an all-British driver lineup next year, with future star George Russell replacing Valtteri Bottas, after five years the Finn spent playing wingman and second fiddle to team ace Lewis Hamilton, and everyone is wondering how the young newcomer will act in his new team and around his highly decorated teammate.
The mere thought of having Russell alongside Hamilton at Mercedes inevitably brings back memories of McLaren in 2007, when then-rookie Hamilton joined the reigning F1 World Champion of the time Fernando Alonso. That partnership didn’t go well, and was short-lived with Alonso leaving the team after one year, as Hamilton challenged his status within McLaren.
Will Russell challenge Hamilton?
Damon Hill, the 1996 F1 World Champion, gave his view on this matter to Express Sport, stating that there is every chance Russell might want to “knock spots off” Hamilton, which might not be wise.
“I think it’s going to be great to watch,” Hill began. “I’m sure Lewis will be wanting to encourage George. I don’t see it going wrong.”
“I think Lewis recognises that his timespan is shorter in the sport than George’s so he will want to play his part in giving him a leg up – not that he needs one, probably.
Hill believes that a lot will be riding on Russell’s approach: “It’s down to George and how he approaches it, I think. You can go into these situations and think: ‘Right, that’s the enemy over there and I’m out to knock spots off them’.
“That might not be the wisest thing to do with Lewis, I don’t think,” he warned.
Nevertheless, the F1 driver-turned pundit is highly intrigued Mercedes’ 2022 driver lineup: “That’s something to really look forward to next year.
“I’ll be as excited as anyone to see what will happen,” he concluded.
Romelu Lukaku came on to score his first Premier League goal since September to keep Chelsea in the title race as the European champions came from behind to beat Aston Villa 3-1.
Reece James’ own goal put Villa ahead, but Jorginho quickly levelled from the penalty spot in a clash between two of the many English sides hit by cases of coronavirus.
Lukaku was one of Chelsea’s absentees due to a positive test for draws against Everton and Wolves last week that saw them lose ground in the title race.
But he made his return off the bench at the break and made an almost instant impact to head home Callum Hudson Odoi’s cross.
The Belgian’s blistering run then won a second Chelsea penalty in stoppage time that Jorginho slotted home.
Thomas Tuchel’s men move level on points with Liverpool, who have a game in hand, and back to within six of Manchester City, who were 6-3 winners over Leicester earlier on Boxing Day.
Villa’s own Covid outbreak saw manager Steven Gerrard forced into isolation after he tested positive on Christmas Day.
Gerrard has made a big impression since taking over in November, but this was another lesson in the gap he has to bridge to the Premier League’s top three after defeats to City and Liverpool.
The home side got off to the perfect start when James flicked Matt Targett’s effort over his own goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to open the scoring on 28 minutes.
However, the lead lasted just six minutes due to Matty Cash’s rash challenge on Hudson-Odoi inside the area.
Jorginho was Chelsea’s top league scorer last season despite all of his goals coming from penalties and the Italian international is his side’s leading marksmen in all competitions thanks to nine spot-kicks this season.
Lukaku will expect that to change over the coming weeks as the club’s record signing finds his form after a disrupted start to his second spell at Stamford Bridge.
He is still yet to start in the Premier League since suffering an ankle injury in October, with his positive test for Covid coming just as he was returning to full fitness.
But a Lukaku in form is what Chelsea need if they are to mount a serious title challenge with clashes against Liverpool and City to come in January.
The former Manchester United striker took just 11 minutes to make the difference as he timed his run perfectly to meet Hudson-Odoi’s cross and powered a header low past Emiliano Martinez.
Chelsea should have run out more comfortable winners as Mason Mount dragged his shot wide with the goal gaping after rounding Martinez.
The Argentine then spread himself to deny Hudson-Odoi when one-on-one.
But the only way Ezri Konsa could stop Lukaku as he powered his way through the Villa defence late on was by hauling him down and Jorginho got the better on Martinez once more from the spot.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Sergio Perez joined Red Bull in a season when the team was locked down in an intense title fight with Mercedes, the Mexican admitting he was under pressure, with everyone watching him.
