Category: Football (Soccer)

Slowly but surely, West Ham are edging their way to safety. While this battling draw against a Crystal Palace side with their minds elsewhere proved terminal to his former club Wolves as it confirmed their relegation, Nuno Espírito Santo had to be satisfied with a point after Brennan Johnson missed the best chance to boost his former employers Tottenham.

Palace, who have now been involved in eight stalemates this season, were indebted to captain Dean Henderson for producing the save of the night to deny Konstantinos Mavropanos just before half-time, although West Ham struggled to create much else. Nuno will be disappointed not to have stretched their advantage over Tottenham to four points, although their fate remains very much in their hands with David Moyes’s Everton next up on Saturday.

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Manchester City eked a win by the slimmest of margins on Sunday, setting up a season finale that will be determined by nerves

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It was probably Arsenal’s best performance in two months, but that will be scant consolation. Manchester City’s win on Sunday leaves Pep Guardiola’s side in control of the title race; they will go top of the Premier League on goal difference if they beat Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday. Both sides will then have five games to play.

Sunday’s game was decided by desperately fine margins. What prevented Eberechi Eze’s whipped shot from just outside the box going in? An inch? Half of one? Gabriel also struck the woodwork, while Kai Havertz headed a great chance a fraction over the crossbar in injury time. It was a defeat that has handed City the advantage in the title race, but it could very easily have been a battling draw to preserve Arsenal’s lead and, perhaps more importantly, restore morale.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

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Curtis Jones sums up Liverpool’s approach, Eddie Howe’s transfer record under scrutiny and Tammy Abraham shows his worth

For Manchester City, Gianluigi Donnarumma has always been a case of risk and reward. Perhaps only Thibaut Courtois is as fine a shot-stopper as Italy’s Euro 2020 hero, though many goalkeepers are better with the ball at their feet. Claudio Bravo, let alone Ederson, would be unlikely to dither in the fashion that alerted Kai Havertz to the possibility of pressing City’s keeper as close as possible for Arsenal’s goal. Donnarumma was the signing who bucked the Pep Guardiola doctrines, and his goalkeeping has been crucial to City’s revival but such mistakes have always been part of the giant Italian’s makeup. Paris Saint-Germain would not meet his wage demands, and opted for Lille’s Lucas Chevalier, a better ball-player as an ill-starred replacement. Donnarumma smothered a good chance for Havertz in the second half. His big mistake, seconds after Rayan Cherki’s opener, did not, after all, become the key twist in the title race. John Brewin

Match report: Manchester City 2-1 Arsenal

Match report: Everton 1-2 Liverpool

Match report: Tottenham 2-2 Brighton

Match report: Chelsea 0-1 Manchester United

Match report: Newcastle 1-2 Bournemouth

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Rayan Cherki scored one of the goals of the season but Gabriel had a game to forget and could have seen red

Gianluigi Donnarumma Nighmarish howler allowed Havert’s equaliser. Redemption – a little – came in the second period with point-blank save from the same player. 4

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Erling Haaland settled a pulsating clash at the Etihad to leave Arsenal ruing a series of near misses

When Pep Guardiola was preparing for the challenge of taking on Jürgen Klopp’s peak Liverpool team at Anfield in February 2021, training that week at Manchester City was a little different, according to Oleksandr Zinchenko. Guardiola’s instructions seemed counterintuitive. “Guys, let’s start from the goal-kick, I want you to make at least three or four touches on the ball,” the manager told them. “Most of the teams come to Anfield and shit themselves. They want to play one touch, two touch. ‘Oh, don’t give me the ball! Oh you take it!’ But you have to play with big balls at Anfield! Big balls! ‘Give me the ball!’ Demand it! If you need to dribble past two or three players, do it. But play football. I want you to play football.”

Zinchenko recalls that Guardiola made the same speech before they walked out at Anfield. “Teams coming here are scared. They play one or two touches, and that’s what Liverpool like, because they get the ball back so quickly. I want you to be brave. Play your football!” as Zinchenko puts it in his autobiography, Believe. Admittedly that game came in the midst of City’s record-breaking 21-game winning run that season but was also Guardiola’s first win at Anfield, so not dissimilar to the title showdown at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday with Arsenal.

Aston Villa 4-3 Sunderland

Everton 1-2 Liverpool

Nottingham Forest 4-1 Burnley

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Virgil van Dijk’s added-time winner gave Liverpool a crucial victory in the first derby at Everton’s new home

Otherwise, Florian Wirtz is again given a chance to assert and establish – the numbers and profiles behind him, more defensively minded, offer him yet some ballast, but does he have the necessary speed of thought and play, along with the required combativeness, to make a difference?

The problem he has is that he replaced two full-backs who were better in attack than defence, with … two full-backs who are better in attack than defence. Essentially, he doesn’t have a combination that works, so has prioritised solidity and experience here, the new lads excluded. That means Dominic Szoboszlai again plays at the back, which means Liverpool must do without their best midfielder in the centre of the pitch; I guess the plan might be for him to invert, but otherwise Slot will hope that the ball-carrying and tenacity of Curtis Jones compensate.

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The finish was chaotic but, when the dust settles, this perhaps was the afternoon when Aston Villa made a decisive spurt for the finish line to claim Champions League qualication. As Tammy Abraham touched in the winner three minutes into injury-time, Unai Emery ran onto the pitch in celebration. Yet just a minute earlier Habib Diarra had been set clean through with a chance of his own to win it. Emi Martínez, though, stretched up to save his dink, and the road was cleared for the Villa winner.

It was a game played amid a strange spirit of relaxation, with both sides having effectively achieved their ambitions for the season before kick-off: for Sunderland, avoiding the drop, and for Villa qualifying for the Champions League; Unai Emery’s fifth Europa League success, itself a potential route into the premier competition, may still come as a bonus. This was just Villa’s fifth win in 15 league games since their run of eight league wins in a row came to an end in late December, and as a result they now have a 10-point lead over Chelsea in sixth with five games remaining.

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Bruno Fernandes created the only goal for Matheus Cunha as Man Utd held firm to move 10 points clear of Chelsea

2 min “After more than 40 days without internet here in Iran; I finally managed to get online,” writes Karen Asad. “You can’t imagine how difficult that is! anyway I’m looking forward to my first live blog in almost two months. I can testify that football is a great distraction from the raging war surrounding us. Here’s hoping a United win!”

1 min Man Utd kick off from left to right as we watch.

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Tottenham led twice but conceded in both first- and second-half stoppage time and remain in the bottom three

5 mins: A big punt forward from Kinsky towards Solanke, who seems to pretty deliberately take out van Hecke. They both go down and the ball bounces forward, with Simons haring after it. He’s not far away from getting it, either, but Verbruggen comes out to huff it away in the nick of time. Again, the referee lets play continue.

3 mins: Lots of people running around as the game starts with a high tempo. But then Danso stops Minteh completing a one-two and thereby concedes a free-kick on halfway.

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Is this the moment a rough patch turns into a full blown crisis for Eddie Howe? As Alex Scott shone in Bournemouth’s midfield and Adrien Truffert’s late winner prompted wild visiting celebrations, it certainly looked that way.

Newcastle’s manager has now presided over four straight defeats and, with his team stuck in 14th, any vision of European qualification seems a fast receding speck in the distance.

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Bernd Leno saves the day for Fulham to secure draw that dents Brentford’s European ambitions

1 min Brentford kick off, lump the ball forward and Igor Thiago wins a corner!

“Given today’s match between two solid London sides,” says Peter O’Connor, “a poser. If there were an independent state of London, where would its football league figure among the Big Five European leagues?”

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