Relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion gave their Premier League survival hopes a huge boost with a stunning 5-2 victory over 10-man Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Chelsea, fourth in the table, took the lead just before the half-hour mark when Marcos Alonso’s free kick came off the post and Christian Pulisic scored from the rebound, the American winger’s first goal under manager Thomas Tuchel.
Two minutes later Chelsea defender Thiago Silva was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for a reckless challenge.
West Brom used their numerical advantage to good effect as Matheus Pereira scored two goals in quick succession in first-half stoppage time to put the visitors ahead at the interval.
They added two goals on the counter-attack five minutes apart in the second half, with Callum Robinson volleying home a Darnell Furlong cross before Pereira turned provider for Mbaye Diagne.
Chelsea pulled one back to make it 4-2 when Timo Werner set up substitute Mason Mount for a simple tap-in but West Brom scored their fifth in stoppage time when Robinson found space and chipped onrushing keeper Edouard Mendy.
West Brom remained second-bottom of the table, seven points from the safety zone.
Liverpool finally turned on the style to thrash Arsenal 3-0 and move into fifth place in the Premier League on Saturday with Diogo Jota netting twice after coming on as a substitute.
While their title is heading to Manchester City, the outgoing champions produced the kind of display that saw them romp to glory last season, albeit against a timid Arsenal.
The only surprise was that it took Juergen Klopp’s side until after halftime to make their superiority count.
Jota headed Liverpool in front from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross in the 64th minute, three minutes after coming on.
Mohamed Salah doubled Liverpool’s lead four minutes later before Jota scored from close range in the 81st minute.
Victory moved Liverpool above Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United and left them only two points behind fourth-placed Chelsea who were thrashed at home by West Bromwich Albion earlier, throwing the top-four battle wide open.
Liverpool have 49 points from 30 games with Arsenal down in ninth place with 42 points after a 12th defeat of the season.
“If we are to think about a higher spot then we have to do our jobs and win every single game,” Jota said.
“If we do our job we have a chance (to finish in top four).”
Liverpool have lost an unthinkable eight league games since the turn of the year but the way they dominated Arsenal for 90 minutes suggests they are rediscovering their mojo.
Arsenal just could not live with Liverpool’s intensity and could make no headway as they fell to their heaviest margin of defeat in a home league game against Liverpool.
One sweeping move early on saw Sadio Mane’s header saved by Bernd Leno while Roberto Firmino drilled another effort just wide after Arsenal were harried into conceding possession.
James Milner wasted another chance for Liverpool before halftime and the pattern continued after the break.
Alexander-Arnold was surprisingly left out of England’s squad for the recent World Cup qualifiers, but the right back showed his class with a perfect cross which allowed Jota to steal in and head beyond Leno.
It was Jota’s fourth headed goal in his last three games, including three for Portugal.
Four minutes later Fabinho’s long pass was not dealt with properly by Gabriel and Salah wriggled through to fire a shot through Leno’s legs and move back as leader in the race for the Golden Boot prize with 18 goals.
Alexander-Arnold was involved in Liverpool’s third, winning the ball back in a dangerous area before Salah’s pass across the area was fired home by Jota.
It could have been worse for Arsenal with Liverpool failing to take several good chances but the visitors will head into Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid in good heart.
“We don’t look at Chelsea or West Ham or whatever because we have to win our games,” Klopp said. “But tonight the package was extremely good and that’s what you need.”
Leeds United winger Jack Harrison netted in the first half and his cross led to an own goal in the second as his side moved into the Premier League’s top 10 with a 2-1 win over bottom side Sheffield United on Saturday (Apr 3).
Pressing high up the pitch, Leeds took the lead in the 12th minute when Harrison scored with a simple tap-in after excellent work by Raphinha to carve open the Sheffield United defence down the right.
The visitors levelled before the break as Ben Osborn popped up at the far post to steer home Oliver McBurnie’s deflected shot, and though Luke Ayling cleared the ball, goal-line technology quickly ruled that it had crossed the line.
Leeds killed the game off four minutes into the second half when Harrison’s low cross was put into his own net by Phil Jagielka to move them up to 10th in the table on 42 points, while Sheffield United remain bottom on 14 points after 30 games.
Manchester City extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to 17 points as Benjamin Mendy and Gabriel Jesus fired them to a 2-0 win at third-placed Leicester City on Saturday.
City now need, at most, 11 points from their remaining seven matches to secure their third Premier League title in four seasons.
The effects of the international break were barely noticeable on Pep Guardiola’s side, who dominated from the outset, having a Fernandinho strike ruled out for offside before Kevin De Bruyne crashed a free kick against the bar.
Leicester were restricted to the counter-attack but went close to an opener on the stroke of halftime when Jamie Vardy rounded Ederson and slotted the ball home but he was narrowly offside.
City were finally rewarded for their control of the game in the 58th minute when, after keeper Kasper Schmeichel had parried out a Riyad Mahrez shot, Leicester failed to clear a Rodri cross and Mendy cut inside Marc Albrighton and side-footed into the far corner.
De Bruyne was at his very best and it was the Belgian who created the second with a glorious defence-splitting pass to Jesus, who fed Raheem Sterling, the England man taking his time before returning the pass to the Brazilian who poked home.
Manchester United took a giant stride towards securing a top-four finish as they battled back to beat Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday after several other sides in the race stumbled.
United grafted to a 2-1 victory thanks to second half goals by Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood after their former striker Danny Welbeck had given Brighton an early lead.
It left second-placed United on 60 points, 14 behind runaway leaders Manchester City but crucially 11 ahead of fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and West Ham United.
“It’s always difficult to play Brighton. We have had good results and we’ve earned them the hard way. We managed to find a way in the second half,” manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.
United proved the old adage that winning when playing poorly can reap great rewards — a lesson Spurs would do well to take on board after being held to a 2-2 draw at Newcastle United.
Chelsea’s shock 5-2 defeat by West Bromwich Albion on Saturday had opened the door for Tottenham to move above their London rivals into fourth spot and they looked poised to do so as they led 2-1 with Harry Kane’s 18th and 19th league goals of the season after Newcastle had gone in front.
But Joe Willock, on loan from Arsenal, equalised for the hosts in the 85th minute to secure his side a point that by the end of the day looked valuable in their relegation battle.
Spurs have now dropped 11 points due to goals conceded in the final 10 minutes of games this season, the most of any Premier League side.
“We were not far from winning it but, at the same time, we created some instability on the game with so many individual defensive mistakes that we made,” manager Jose Mourinho said.
Newcastle’s relief at securing a point looked like being short-lived when Fulham led at Aston Villa with 15 minutes remaining thanks to a goal by Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Victory for Fulham would have taken them above Newcastle and out of the bottom three for the first time since December but Villa scored three times in nine minutes through Trezeguet’s double and Ollie Watkins to win 3-1 and leave Fulham in trouble.
They remain in 18th place, three points behind Newcastle having also played one game more.
“We need to be brutally honest, the last 15 minutes is not one we can brush under the carpet. If we do that again, we will not win football matches,” manager Scott Parker said.
Southampton all but banished any lingering relegation fears as they came from two goals down to win 3-2 at home to Burnley with Stuart Armstrong, Danny Ings and Nathan Redmond on target.
West Ham United boosted their hopes of finishing in the Premier League top four and earning a Champions League berth after an impressive first half helped them to a 3-2 win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.
West Ham moved three places up to fourth on 52 points from 30 games, one more than fifth-placed Chelsea and three ahead of sixth-placed Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool in seventh. Wolves stayed 14th on 35 points.
West Ham also equalled the club’s Premier League record of seven away wins in a season and gave themselves every chance of breaking it with eight games remaining.
Jesse Lingard, Pablo Fornals and substitute Jarrod Bowen, who replaced the injured Michail Antonio, fired the Hammers into a 3-0 lead before Leander Dendoncker pulled one back for the home side in an action-packed first half.
Fabio Silva struck for the resurgent Wolves midway through the second but the home side were unable to make their late pressure count as the visitors held out in the closing stages.
Lingard fired West Ham ahead after he capped a darting solo run from his own half with a fine left-footed finish in the sixth minute after Antonio had hit the post with a ferocious long-range effort.
Fornals made it 2-0 in the 14th with a deft side-footed finish after good work from Lingard and Arthur Masuaku, who squared the ball back to the Spaniard.
Bowen added the third in the 38th minute, shortly after coming on for Antonio, as he found space in the heart of the penalty area to beat home goalkeeper Rui Patricio with a firm low shot inside the near post.
Wasteful Wolves, who compounded their poor defending in the first half by wasting several gilt-edged chances, hauled themselves back into the contest when Dendoncker headed home an Adama Traore cross in the 42nd minute.
West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek had a goal disallowed for handball on the hour and the visitors were forced to hang on in the final 20 minutes after Silva beat visiting goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski with a neat finish midway through the second half.
Wolves were missing Spanish defender Jonny who was ruled out for the rest of the season shortly before kick off with a recurring knee injury.
The home team’s manager Nuno Espirito Santo rued their sloppy defending.
“We were very poor in defence and it takes away from all the good things we did in attack,” he told Sky Sports.
“The reaction was good but we started very bad. Conceding three goals against a top team like West Ham makes it very difficult to reverse the result.”
Everton midfielder James Rodriguez scored on his return from a long lay-off on Saturday against Crystal Palace but it was not enough to earn his side victory as the Londoners snatched a 1-1 draw with a late strike from Michy Batshuayi.
The Colombian had not featured for over six weeks due to injury. After coming close to scoring in the first half he broke the deadlock in the 56th minute, slotting a Seamus Coleman cutback inside the near post to score his 100th goal in European club football.
Carlo Ancelotti’s side had a couple of opportunities to extend their lead through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Richarlison and they paid the price for not taking them when Batshuayi pulled Palace level in the 86th minute.
The Belgian forward had been on the pitch for less than two minutes and made an instant impact when he latched on to a through ball from Jeffrey Schlupp and fired a low shot past keeper Robin Olsen.
