Manchester United’s home form looks like being enough to earn the team a return to the Champions League.
United beat Wolverhampton 2-0 on Saturday for a fourth straight home win at Old Trafford in the English Premier League, with Anthony Martial and Alejandro Garnacho scoring.
Erik ten Hag’s team lost its previous two games 1-0 and both were away, against Brighton and West Ham.
United moved level on points with third-placed Newcastle and both were four clear of fifth-placed Liverpool, with all three teams having three games left. Significantly, two of United’s are at home against Chelsea and Fulham.
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Martial slotted home in the 32nd minute after a square ball from Brazil winger Antony to give United the lead and only an impressive display by Wolves goalkeeper Dan Bentley, making his league debut, kept the score down.
Garnacho sealed the victory after beating the offside trap to race onto Bruno Fernandes’ pass and providing the finish in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Wolves arrived at Old Trafford knowing it was safe from relegation.
Crystal Palace 2-0 Bournemouth
Eberechi Eze’s double highlighted Crystal Palace’s 2-0 win over Bournemouth in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Both teams have already avoided the drop, and Palace remained 12th in the standings, four points above Bournemouth.
Eze fired Palace ahead late in the first half in a move sparked by Wilfried Zaha and involving Jordan Ayew.
Eze bagged his second in the 58th, a solo effort that saw him collect the ball from Michael Olise on the left before a mazy run through the center put him in position to fire his 10th of the season into the top right.
It was not all good news for Roy Hodgson’s hosts, who saw Zaha forced off after the break when he pulled up limping. Zaha only recently recovered from a hamstring injury.
Zaha, out of contract at the end of this campaign, was treated to a rousing chant by the home support, possibly wondering if this would be the last time they would watch him walk off the pitch in a Palace shirt.
Southampton 0-2 Fulham
Southampton became the first team to be relegated from the Premier League after losing to Fulham 2-0 on Saturday, ensuring the south-coast team’s 11-year stay in England’s top division is coming to an end.
Southampton’s fate was sealed with two games remaining of its first full season since last year’s takeover by Sport Republic, an investment firm in the sports and entertainment industry run by Serbian businessman Dragan Solak.
Goals by Carlos Vinicius and Aleksandar Mitrovic, in his first game back after an eight-game ban for grabbing a referee, earned Fulham the victory at St. Mary’s stadium, where British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak — a Southampton fan — was in the stands.
Southampton is eight points from safety with games to go against Brighton and Liverpool.
“We have fought tirelessly as a club,” read a statement from Sport Republic, “but the Premier League is the most competitive league in the world and our results were simply not good enough to stay there.
“We are particularly saddened and frustrated that our first season as controlling shareholders in Southampton has ended in relegation. While this outcome is distressing for all of us, now is the time to demonstrate unity.”
Solak was the founder of eastern European telecommunications giant United Group. In January 2022, his Sport Republic investment firm purchased the 80% stake held by Chinese businessman Gao Jisheng, who had been majority shareholder at the club since 2017.
“We want to reassure our supporters, our partners and our staff that we remain fully committed to achieving long-term success for the club at the top level,” the Sport Republic statement read.
“We must now reflect on the lessons to be learned from this season and start preparing for the challenges ahead of us in the Championship. Our goal is to return to the Premier League as soon as possible and ensure that we stay there. At the same time, we will continue to focus on the long-term development of the club, both on and off the pitch, to ensure its sustainability at the highest level.”
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Chelsea 2-2 Nottingham Forest
Taiwo Awoniyi’s second goal of the day helped relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest draw with Chelsea 2-2 in the English Premier League on Saturday after Raheem Sterling’s quick-fire goals at Stamford Bridge.
Awoniyi, who also netted twice last week, opened the scoring in the 13th minute with a powerful header and nodded home again just past the hour mark, shortly after Sterling equalized and put Chelsea in front with goals seven minutes apart.
The draw inched Forest closer to safety, with Steve Cooper’s team in 16th place and three points above the relegation zone with two games remaining. Forest hosts Arsenal next weekend and ends its season at Crystal Palace.
Chelsea is winless in its past six league games at Stamford Bridge as its disappointing season grinds toward completion. The Blues are in 11th place.
Sterling’s performance was a positive development for interim manager Frank Lampard. The England forward scored from Trevor Chalobah’s pass in front of the net in the 51st minute and then beat a defender to curl one home seven minutes later.
Awoniyi just needed a glancing header from Orel Mangala’s pass to level the score in the 62nd.
Forest has just one win from 18 away games this season.
João Félix, who forced a diving save from Forest goalkeeper Keylor Navas in the 33rd, was shown a yellow card in the second half for simulation.
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Aston Villa 2-1 Tottenham
Jacob Ramsey and Douglas Luiz revived Aston Villa’s charge for European qualification by beating Tottenham 2-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Unai Emery’s team moved level on points with sixth-placed Tottenham with two games left in the race for Europe.
Finishing in fifth or sixth place will secure a spot in the Europa League — a competition won by Emery at Spanish sides Sevilla and Villarreal — and seventh place gets into the Europa Conference League.
Tottenham’s consolation goal was scored, almost inevitably, by Harry Kane from the penalty spot in the 90th minute in a game in which Villa was superior in every way. It was Kane’s 27th goal, eight behind the league top scorer, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.
Just 13 months ago at Villa Park, Spurs ran riot as Son Heung-min’s hat trick inspired a 4-0 win. Saturday’s display underlined their continued regression.
Villa took the lead in the eighth minute when Ramsey spread play wide to Leon Bailey and motored into the box to meet the winger’s low cross ahead of Pedro Porro to find the corner of the net.
There was little reaction from Tottenham, with the away fans’ focus being on continued chanting for the exit of chairman Daniel Levy while their side remained passive.
With the lead, Villa was the more cohesive unit and Spurs’ only chance ended with a much-delayed offside flag when Son hit the post after running clear.
Tottenham drifted through the half and needed goalkeeper Fraser Forster to stop the visitors falling further behind after 32 minutes.
Porro’s error was seized on and Ollie Watkins darted into the area to cross for Bailey, only for the goalkeeper’s fine save to keep him out.
It felt like a second goal would seal the game for the hosts and Villa almost doubled the lead five minutes before the break when a diving Watkins just missed Alex Moreno’s teasing cross.
Tottenham’s midfield was being cut through by Villa, and Emi Buendia hit the bar having collected a return pass from Ramsey after breezing through the middle.
Normal service continued in the second half, John McGinn slicing wide from distance and Forster denying Buendia.
Yet Spurs were presented with a glorious chance to level when Oliver Skipp robbed Luiz and the ball rolled to Kane. The England captain had time and space but shot too close to Emi Martinez from just inside the box.
It was a let-off for Villa and sparked an improvement in the visitors as Villa retreated and began to invite pressure, with Dejan Kulusevski curling wide.
Any comeback hopes were snuffed out by Luiz with 18 minutes left, though. Cristian Romero clattered into Watkins 25 meters out and all Forster — with his positioning in question — could do was help Luiz’s free kick into the top corner.
There was still time for Kane to score a penalty after he was fouled by Martinez, following a lengthy VAR check.
Leeds 2-2 Newcastle
Newcastle dropped more points in its push for Champions League qualification by drawing 2-2 at Leeds, which remained in the Premier League relegation zone Saturday after a thrilling game that ended with Newcastle manager Eddie Howe being accosted by a fan.
Howe wasn’t hurt in the incident and said he “was struggling to make sense” of a chaotic match that saw Leeds have a penalty saved, concede two more converted by Callum Wilson and have Junior Firpo sent off in stoppage time.
Rasmus Kristensen’s deflected shot in the 79th minute ultimately earned Leeds a point but the team now managed by Sam Alladryce will come away from the match with big regrets because of errors by Patrick Bamford and Firpo.
Leeds was leading 1-0 through Luke Ayling’s seventh-minute goal when Bamford was given a chance to double the advantage from the penalty spot after Firpo was tripped by Joelinton.
Bamford saw his penalty saved by goalkeeper Nick Pope and, three minutes later, Newcastle striker Wilson converted a spot kick at the other end after Alexander Isak was bundled over by Max Wober.
Firpo then had a moment of madness when he raised his hand following a cross into the area, with the ball brushing his fingertips to give away a penalty.
Wilson converted that one, too, right down the middle in the 69th only for Kristensen to equalize.
Firpo was sent off for a second yellow card in the first minute of stoppage time, during which there was an alarming incident that saw a spectator walk up to Howe in the technical area and barge him in the chest before being escorted away by security.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether it was a Leeds or Newcastle fan.
Leeds is one point from safety with two games left, at West Ham and at home against Tottenham.
“A point today is massive for us, especially with how we did it,” Ayling said. “We had a chance to go 2-0 up and then that happened. In weeks before we’d probably lose that four or 5-1.”
Newcastle stayed third but failed to rebound from a 2-0 home loss to Arsenal last weekend and is now four points clear of fifth-place Liverpool.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)