Manchester City moved 17 points clear of the pack with a 3-0 win at Fulham on Saturday with John Stones continuing his surprising goalscoring touch and Sergio Aguero rediscovering his.Defender Stones, who had managed one goal in his first 170 Premier League appearances, has now netted four in his last 10.
His close-range effort broke Fulham’s resistance two minutes after the interval and after Gabriel Jesus capitalised on a Fulham mistake to make it 2-0, Aguero netted a penalty to grab his 181st City league goal, but first for 14 months.
While City have all but sewn up their third title in four seasons, the battle for a top-four spot continues to be unpredictable and looks set to go to the wire.
Chelsea’s 0-0 draw at Leeds United made it 12 games without defeat since Thomas Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard in charge.
But it opened the door for Everton later to close the gap on Chelsea who occupy fourth spot.
Victory against Burnley would have put Everton into fifth, two points behind Chelsea having played a game less, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side suffered another home stumble.
Chris Wood and Dwight McNeil gave Burnley a 2-0 lead and while Dominic Calvert-Lewin did pull a goal back for the hosts they could not avert a seventh league defeat at Goodison Park.
“It’s a big disappointment but we can’t give up. There are 10 games left and we fight until the end,” Ancelotti said.
Everton remain in sixth spot with 46 points from 28 games, two points behind West Ham United who could go level on points with Chelsea, and have a game in hand, on Sunday if they win at second-placed Manchester United.
RELEGATION FEARS
Burnley’s win eased their relegation fears as they are now seven points ahead of third-from-bottom Fulham who had looked impressive in the first half against City before crumbling.
“Disappointing. I asked the team to be brave and show courage against the team who will be champions — and we were,” Fulham boss Scott Parker said. “There’s no denying the mistakes we gave away for the goals were sloppy.
“We will dust ourselves down and move on.”
Bottom club Sheffield United parted ways with manager Chris Wilder on Saturday and while they look doomed to the drop, West Bromwich Albion are also running out of time.
Their 1-0 defeat by Crystal Palace left them eight points behind Fulham and 17th-placed Brighton and Hove Albion.
“There’s 27 points available and 20 needed,” West Brom manager Sam Allardyce, who has never been in charge of a relegated team in the top flight, said.
Palace captain Luka Milivojevic decided the game with a VAR-awarded penalty while the other talking point was Palace’s Wilfried Zaha opting not to take a knee before kickoff — the first Premier League player not to make the anti-racism gesture this season.
“There is no right or wrong decision, but for me personally I feel kneeling has just become a part of the pre-match routine and at the moment it doesn’t matter whether we kneel or stand, some of us still continue to receive abuse,” he said.
“I now just want to focus on football and enjoy being back playing on the pitch. I will continue to stand tall.”
Manchester United and Leicester City strengthened their hold on top-four places in the Premier League with wins on Sunday but Tottenham Hotspur’s hopes diminished as they lost at Arsenal in the north London derby.
An own goal by Craig Dawson gave United a 1-0 home win over fifth-placed West Ham United after Leicester City had thrashed visiting bottom club Sheffield United 5-0 to briefly go second.
Tottenham had the chance to go fifth but lost 2-1 at Arsenal despite a stunning Erik Lamela goal.
The Argentine produced an exquisite ‘Rabona’ in the 33rd minute to put Spurs in front but was later sent off after a Martin Odegaard strike and Alexander Lacazette’s penalty had turned the game around for the Gunners.
“The goal was sensational no doubt. But the most important thing is the result and we lost the game,” Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho said after his team’s five-game winning run in all competitions came to a disappointing end.
In the day’s early kickoff, Brighton & Hove Albion secured a valuable 2-1 win at Southampton to move three points above third-bottom Fulham in the battle to avoid relegation.
With fourth-placed Chelsea drawing and sixth-placed Everton losing on Saturday, United and Leicester had the chance to put some daylight between themselves and the teams directly below them in the table.
FAMILIAR TALE
West Ham also had every incentive at Old Trafford knowing victory would put them level on points with Chelsea and with a game in hand. But it was a familiar tale of disappointment for their boss David Moyes who has now failed to win in 14 league attempts away to Manchester United as an opposing manager.
The Londoners failed to register a goal attempt in a subdued first half and rarely looked like recovering the own goal scored by Dawson in the 53rd minute as United kept a fourth successive clean sheet for the first time under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
United’s win put them back into second place with 57 points from 29 games, one more than Leicester and crucially nine ahead of West Ham. Manchester City are 14 points clear at the top after their 3-0 defeat of Fulham on Saturday.
“We could have been more comfortable towards the end,” Solskjaer said. “We created massive opportunities but the final pass was missing. It was a big weekend for us this.”
Moyes, who spent 10 months as Manchester United manager, said his team had slipped from their recent standards.
“I’m just disappointed we didn’t take something form the game,” he said. “We did better in the last 20 minutes but there was nothing as good as what we’ve done in recent weeks.”
IHEANACHO HAT-TRICK
Leicester capitalised on crestfallen Sheffield United who parted company with manager Chris Wilder on Saturday.
Former Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho scored a superb hat-trick for the Foxes with Ayoze Perez also on target and an own goal by Ethan Ampadu completing the rout.
“Unacceptable performance. No excuses. Embarrassing performance from every single one of us. Very poor,” Sheffield United captain Billy Sharp said.
“The gulf between them and us was men against boys. I’m not saying nobody tried, it was just the quality. We didn’t have a shot on goal, which is embarrassing. If we’re not careful, there will be a few more results like that.”
While Sheffield United are doomed and second-bottom West Bromwich Albion in serious peril, the battle above them is intense and Brighton did themselves a huge favour by beating Southampton in the Premier League for the first time.
Goals by Lewis Dunk and Leandro Trossard clinched the points to move Brighton to 16th with 29 points from 28 games.
Newcastle United are now in 17th spot, two points ahead of Fulham, while Southampton’s dreadful form has seen them slip dangerously close to the dog fight.
They still have a seven-point cushion to Fulham but have lost 10 of their last 12 league games.
Diogo Jota rekindled Liverpool’s Premier League top-four hopes with the winning goal on his return to Molineux in a game that ended with a worrying head injury to Wolves goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
Jota, who joined Liverpool from Wolves in September, drilled a low first-time shot under Patricio to settle a tight contest.
It was a fine way for the Portugal forward to mark his first appearance back at his former employers and it sees the Reds climb to sixth, two points behind West Ham in fifth and five off Chelsea in fourth.
In a game of few clear-cut chances, Mohamed Salah saw a late effort ruled out for offside.
However, more distressing for the hosts was the sight of Patricio leaving the pitch on a stretcher after a lengthy delay following a collision with his captain Conor Coady, while trying to prevent the Egyptian from scoring.
