Chelsea boosted their hopes of a top-four finish with a 2-1 win over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday while at the bottom Aston Villa and Bournemouth drifted deeper into trouble with damaging defeats.
Manchester City cut Liverpool’s lead to 19 points as they won 1-0 at Leicester City in the battle for runners-up spot.
Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso returned to the Chelsea starting lineup and responded with a goal each in the derby against Spurs at Stamford Bridge.
It was only Chelsea’s sixth win in 14 home Premier League games this season but it was a timely one as they remain fourth, the last Champions league qualification spot, with 44 points from 27 games, four more than Jose Mourinho’s Spurs.
Erik Lamela’s shot deflected in off Antonio Rudiger to give Spurs some hope near the end but Chelsea were deserved winners.
VAR was the big talking point once again, however, as Tottenham’s Giovani Lo Celso was spared a red card for a dreadful tackle on Chelsea skipper Cesar Azpilicueta.
While referee Michael Oliver did not punish Lo Celso, video replays confirmed the severity of his ‘stamp’ on Azpilicueta’s shin, but surprisingly a VAR check found him not guilty.
According to BT Sport, who were showing the game live, VAR official David Coote admitted he had made a mistake in not recommending a red card for the midfielder.
“Saying afterwards that they made a mistake is not good enough because they had a couple of minutes to try to get it right,” said Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, who completed a league double over his old Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
“They probably needed one viewing of that one to get it right. It’s another huge question mark on VAR.”
Opportunist goals from Shane Long and Stuart Armstrong condemned Villa to a 2-0 defeat at mid-table Southampton.
Villa stay 17th on 25 points, one point above the relegation zone and a point behind Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth, who fell to a 3-0 loss at Burnley where VAR was also in the dock.
REMARKABLE MINUTE
Burnley grabbed the lead in the 53rd minute with Czech striker Vydra claiming his second goal in as many games but the match turned on a remarkable minute of VAR-reviewed action on the hour mark.
Burnley appealed in vain for a penalty, arguing that Adam Smith had handled a Dwight McNeil cross — the resulting counter-attack ended with Callum Wilson feeding Harry Wilson who clipped the ball past goalkeeper Nick Pope.
But VAR ruled that Smith had indeed handled — cancelling out the Bournemouth goal and awarding Burnley a penalty which Jay Rodriguez converted to make it 2-0 after 61 minutes when moments earlier the score had stood at 1-1.
McNeil rounded off the win with a superb solo goal in the 87th to send the Clarets up to eighth.
To rub salt into Bournemouth’s wounds they had a goal by Josh King ruled out for handball when the score was 0-0.
“It’s so difficult for the players, there was almost a three goal swing against us,” Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said.
“Once the second VAR decision happened we fell apart a bit mentally.”
Manchester City were rightly awarded a penalty after a VAR check at Leicester later, only for Sergio Aguero’s spot kick to be saved by Kasper Schmeichel — City’s fourth successive missed penalty in the Premier League.
But Gabriel Jesus, on as a substitute, spared Aguero’s blushes when he fired home a late winner that lifted City seven points above Leicester and 19 behind leaders Liverpool.
Sixth-placed Sheffield United have begun to dream of a possible Champions League place but were frustrated as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by lowly Brighton & Hove Albion.
A poacher’s goal from Brighton striker Neal Maupay cancelled out a peach of a strike from Enda Stevens.
Crystal Palace broke a three-match losing streak in the league as full back Patrick van Aanholt’s thunderbolt free-kick gave Roy Hodgson’s side a 1-0 home win over Newcastle United.
It looked like being a frustrating day for second-placed City when Kasper Schmeichel saved Sergio Aguero’s spot kick just past the hour but Jesus spared his blushes late on.
The Brazilian was fractionally onside as he collected a pass by former Leicester title winner Riyad Mahrez and he showed great composure to power a shot past Schmeichel.
Manchester United kept alive their hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four after goals from Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood secured a 3-0 home win over Watford on Sunday.
Portugal midfielder Fernandes scored his first goal for United with a 42nd-minute penalty before Martial and Greenwood netted fine individual efforts to lift them two places up to fifth on 41 points from 27 games.
United are three points behind fourth-placed Chelsea and one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur while struggling Watford stayed 19th on 24 points.
The home team’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer praised the agile Fernandes and Greenwood.
“A very good win, two good wins and two clean sheets, some goals to celebrate, now we want to kick on,” Solskjaer told the BBC, also referring to United’s 2-0 win at Chelsea on Monday.
“Fernandes is quicker than he looks. Very excited by having him in. He has come in, given everyone a boost and wants to conduct a game. There are big games coming up now.
“The thing that matters in football is scoring goals and that is what Greenwood does.”
Fernandes added: “This is the day every player wants to have. I just need to help the team, it’s what I need to do. I hope Martial scores more goals too like he did.”
The home side looked disjointed in the opening 20 minutes and both teams missed chances before Ben Foster tripped Fernandes and the playmaker sent Watford’s goalkeeper the wrong way with a confident spot-kick.
Watford had an effort ruled out for handball following a VAR check soon after halftime and United doubled their lead in the 58th minute when Martial picked up the rebound after Ben Foster blocked his initial attempt, left Etienne Capoue dumbfounded with dazzling footwork and dinked the ball over the keeper.
Greenwood put the icing on the cake with another goal of the highest quality in the 75th minute, unleashing a piledriver into the top corner after finding space on the edge of the penalty area.
United fans unfurled a giant banner before the kickoff and there was a minute’s silence to honour the club’s former goalkeeper Harry Gregg who died last Sunday at the age of 87.
WOLVES 3-0 NORWICH
Diogo Jota struck twice as Wolverhampton Wanderers pushed Norwich City deeper towards the drop with a 3-0 win over the Premier League’s bottom club at Molineux on Sunday.
The in-form Portuguese forward, who scored a hat-trick in Wolves’s 4-0 win over Espanyol in the Europa League on Thursday, put his side ahead, in the 19th minute, with a left-foot finish after good work from Matt Doherty.
Jota doubled Wolves’ advantage from close range after Norwich had failed to clear a corner.
Norwich keeper Tim Krul produced an outstanding save on the stroke of halftime to push a Ruben Neves free kick against the bar as Wolves looked to put the game beyond Daniel Farke’s side.
The third goal came early in the second half with Mexican Raul Jimenez slotting home after a Jota drive had flown out off the post.
Norwich remained bottom on 18 points, seven points behind 17th-placed Aston Villa. Wolves are eighth on 39 points.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice to earn Arsenal a 3-2 Premier League win over Everton on Sunday, extending the Gunners’ unbeaten start to 2020 and moving them back into the battle for European places.
The win lifts Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side up to ninth place in the league with 37 points, while Everton remain without a victory at the Gunners in 24 years and a point adrift in 11th.
As well as the goals of the prolific Aubameyang, who is now joint top scorer in the league on 17 with Jamie Vardy, Arsenal had keeper Bernd Leno to thank for some late saves which preserved the lead.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Carlo Ancelotti’s team ahead in the first minute with a superb, acrobatic volley after David Luiz had failed to deal with a Gylfi Sigurdsson free kick.
Yet Arsenal reacted well, with young forward Eddie Nketiah, who started ahead of Alexandre Lacazette, levelling in the 27th minute, his first goal at the Emirates coming from a fine cross from the left from substitute Bukayo Saka.
Six minutes later and Arsenal were ahead — Luiz making amends for his earlier mistake with a lovely, defence-splitting pass to Aubameyang who calmly slotted past Jordan Pickford.
Brazilian Richarlison brought Everton back on level terms though just before the interval, poking home from close range.
Arsenal, however, struck straight after the break with Aubameyang heading in a Nicolas Pepe cross, 23 seconds after the restart.
Leno then produced a brilliant point-blank reflex save from Calvert-Lewin and did well to keep out a Richarlison effort as Everton pushed for an equaliser.
Arsenal went close to a fourth goal when Nketiah, who spent the first half of the season on loan at Championship (second-tier) Leeds United, struck the bar with a curling shot.
Everton almost grabbed a point at the end but Calvert-Lewin’s header from a Bernard cross went just wide.
The victory completed an excellent week for Arteta’s side after their 4-0 Premier League win over Newcastle United and 1-0 win at Olympiakos in the Europa League on Thursday.
“The best thing is the spirit we showed after coming back from Europe – three games in seven days. And coming back after we went behind. The resilience they showed after they were absolutely shattered. Three wins in seven days, for sure it is my best week,” said the Spaniard.
Ancelotti said his striker Calvert-Lewin was continuing to progress but needed to work on his focus.
“He is doing well but (it is) not enough. If he wants to be a top striker, he has to work more hard, focus hard, work more. He is doing well but he has to have the game to be focused all the time,” he said.
“Defensively, we were terrible. We have to improve. There were three goals we could have avoided. It was too easy for Arsenal to score three goals.
“We had a lot of opportunities at the end of the game to equalise and we did not get it. We are working, we believe in what we are doing. Today was a step down. We need to refocus. We need to re-balance,” said the Italian.
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