Premier league
Tottenham Hotspur’s Premier League top-four hopes were given a massive boost on Saturday as they won 4-0 at Aston Villa thanks to a hat-trick from Son Heung-min as Manchester United and Arsenal suffered damaging defeats.
Chelsea bounced back from their Champions League loss with an emphatic 6-0 win at Southampton while Leeds United eased their worries at the bottom with a 3-0 win at relegation-threatened Watford.
Leaders Manchester City host second-placed Liverpool on Sunday, leaving the focus of Saturday’s games on the battle for the fourth Champions League spot.
Manchester United went down to a 1-0 loss at struggling Everton at Goodison Park while Arsenal were handed a surprise 2-1 home defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion.
The results left Spurs on 57 points, three ahead of Arsenal, who have a game in hand. West Ham United and Manchester United are both on 51 points.
Spurs’ fourth win a row was testament again to the effectiveness of Antonio Conte’s attacking trio of Son, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski.
South Korean Son fired Spurs ahead in the third minute, blasting in off the post after a blocked shot from Kane fell to him on the edge of the box.
Villa dominated the first half but wasted several chances and came up against Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris in top form.
Kane created the second, five minutes after the break, flicking a long ball into the path of Kulusevski who burst into the box and beat Emiliano Martinez with a low shot.
Another clever assist from Kane helped make it 3-0 as he headed a long ball into the stride of Son who ran clear and made no mistake with his finish.
Son completed his hat-trick in the 71st minute after a smart exchange with Kulusevski.
Out of all cup competitions, Manchester United needed a victory at Frank Lampard’s struggling Everton to lift their bid to return to the Champions League.
But after a promising start from the visitors it was Everton who grabbed the lead through Anthony Gordon’s shot which deflected off Harry Maguire and beat the wrong-footed David De Gea in the United goal.
Everton, whose defeat at Burnley in midweek had left them a point and a place above the relegation zone, showed real grit and determination to hang on to their lead while United looked totally lacking in a coherent game plan.
A late Cristiano Ronaldo effort was as close as United came to an equaliser as they slipped to a loss that left English football’s most successful club languishing seventh in the table.
Everton moved four points clear of 18th-placed Burnley, who travel to Norwich City on Sunday.
Arsenal suffered a second straight loss as Brighton ended their seven-match winless run with Zambian midfielder Enock Mwepu scoring one goal and creating another.
Brighton opened the scoring when a long ball found Mwepu on the flank and he picked out Leandro Trossard who curled past Aaron Ramsdale.
DECISIVE BLOW
Arsenal made tactical shifts that showed signs of turning the game around but they were dealt a decisive blow when Mwepu drilled home a half-volley from the edge of the box.
Martin Odegaard provided a late slither of hope in the 89th minute with a long-range shot that took a wicked deflection and looped over goalkeeper Robert Sanchez to give Arsenal a lifeline, but Brighton held on.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was furious with his team’s performance in their 3-1 loss at home to Real Madrid in the Champions League but get the desired reaction from his players.
Two goals each by Timo Werner and Mason Mount and first- half strikes by Marcos Alonso and Kai Havertz sealed a 6-0 demolition job at St Mary’s Stadium.
Chelsea went up 1-0 in the eighth minute as Alonso ran on to a deft flick by Mount and blasted in his first league goal since the opening day of the campaign.
Mount, Chelsea’s leading scorer in the league this season, equalled his tally of nine goals from the previous campaign with a superb shot from outside the box after Southampton’s shaky defence failed to deal with Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s cross.
Werner made up for earlier misses by beating Jan Bednarek for pace before rounding Fraser Forster and finishing into an empty net and Havertz swept in Chelsea’s fourth.
A relentless Chelsea were rewarded again after the break as Werner tapped in a rebound from N’Golo Kante’s effort which was saved by Forster and Mount completed the rout.
American manager Jesse Marsch saw his Leeds United take a big step towards Premier League survival with a 3-0 victory over Watford at Vicarage Road.
Marsch has had a positive impact at the Yorkshire club since taking over from Marcelo Bielsa and goals from Raphinha, Rodrigo and Jack Harrison condemned the hosts to a ninth straight home defeat.
Leeds are in 16th place with 33 points. Watford are 19th with 22 points, six points from safety.
Brentford delivered a huge blow to West Ham’s top-four hopes as the Bees moved further clear of the relegation places with victory in west London.
Second-half goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Ivan Toney saw Thomas Frank’s side climb to 13th in the table, 12 points clear of the bottom three, to all but confirm their Premier League safety.
Mbeumo fired in from Toney’s pass shortly after half-time, before turning provider for his team-mate as Toney headed in after 64 minutes.
Leicester continued their fine run of recent form as homegrown talent Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall played a starring role in a hard-earned win over Crystal Palace.
The Foxes started slowly at the King Power Stadium but Dewsbury-Hall carved Palace open with a superb ball for Ademola Lookman to fire home, before whipping his own finish high into the net six minutes later.
“It means so much,” he said of his first Premier League goal. “It’s a dream come true to score in the Premier League. I have dreamt it since I was a little boy. I have come close but I am so happy today.”
The 23-year-old’s moments of quality proved telling in a fixture both sides could have been forgiven for looking past given their mid-table status and with key cup fixtures in the coming week.
Palace – who missed early chances through Wilfried Zaha, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Joachim Andersen – refused to give in after the break and Youri Tielemans’ foul on Jordan Ayew in the penalty area offered them a route back into the match.
Zaha saw his penalty saved and when VAR pointed to encroachment in the area by home defender Caglar Soyuncu, his retaken penalty was also palmed away by Kasper Schmeichel, only for the Ivory Coast international to head in the rebound.
It prompted a spirited 10 minutes from Palace – who went close through a Jeffrey Schlupp flick – but their seven-game unbeaten run ends. Leicester now have four wins and a draw from their past six league games – form that lifts them to ninth in the table, one place above the beaten visitors.
Bottom club Norwich City kept alive their slim hopes of avoiding a quick-fire return to the Championship and dealt a blow to fellow strugglers Burnley with a crucial win at Carrow Road.
Pierre Lees-Melou’s first goal since signing from Nice last July and Teemu Pukki’s 86th-minute finish settled a tense relegation scrap – and earned the Canaries only their fifth Premier League victory since winning promotion last season.
Manchester City retained their slender one-point advantage at the top of the Premier League as they fought out a classic draw with closest rivals Liverpool at Etihad Stadium.
The meeting between the country’s two outstanding sides lived up to its pre-match billing and in the end there was nothing to separate them, with the destination of the title still hanging in the balance with seven games remaining.
City flew out of the blocks to take an early lead through Kevin de Bruyne’s deflected strike but Liverpool were quickly on terms when Diogo Jota turned home Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pass.
Pep Guardiola’s side dominated a magnificent first 45 minutes but failed to convert a host of chances before Gabriel Jesus stole in behind Alexander-Arnold to restore their lead from Joao Cancelo’s cross nine minutes before the break.
Liverpool had been strangely nervous but came out rejuvenated after the re-start, equalising when Sadio Mane celebrated his 30th birthday by scoring from Mohamed Salah’s perfect pass in the 47th minute.
Raheem Sterling had a goal ruled out for offside as both sides pressed for a winner in this superb match, with City substitute Riyad Mahrez wasting a chance to win it in the dying seconds as he lifted his finish over the top.
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