Category: Football (Soccer)

With the title and relegation all but decided, fourth and fifth are the main spots of intrigue as the end of the season approaches

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Southampton’s relegation from the Premier League was confirmed on Sunday, with a record seven games remaining. Wolves beat Ipswich, so there is now a 12-point gap between the bottom three and the rest: Ipswich and Leicester look doomed.

The gap at the top, meanwhile, remains a seemingly unassailable 11 points. Leaders Liverpool lost at Fulham but, with Arsenal only drawing at Everton, it didn’t really matter.

United and City play out a deeply forgettable Manchester derby and Unai Emery gets his Aston Villa team right

• Premier League top scorers: the latest standings

This was a deeply forgettable derby, but it was Manchester United who looked the more likely to get a winner as time ticked down. Ruben Amorim spoke afterwards of using pace in transitions to try and carve out chances – and with a little more composure in the penalty area, it might have worked. Bruno Fernandes was the game’s standout player but Patrick Dorgu also caught the eye in just his fifth Premier League start. Signed from Lecce in January, the Danish wing-back is the first player Amorim has brought in that fits his system. Freed up by City’s narrow formation, Dorgu was able to get forward and test City’s backline at will. The 20-year-old’s red card at Ipswich sparked fears that, like some other young United recruits, he was too raw for regular Premier League football. Sunday’s performance should ensure he holds down the left-sided spot in Amorim’s 3-4-3 setup for the rest of this season, even with Luke Shaw nearing a return to fitness. Niall McVeigh

Match report: Manchester United 0-0 Manchester City

Match report: Fulham 3-2 Liverpool

Match report: Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 Southampton

Blunt and tame, this 196th ­Manchester derby was a curio that failed to ignite despite the cross-town rivalry. Towards the close, Joshua Zirkzee had the contest’s clearest opening: the No 11 swung a boot at Patrick Dorgu’s cross and connected cleanly but ­Ederson saved, cat-like, and ­Manchester City escaped; as they did, also, when a later penalty shout for Mateo ­Kovacic’s challenge on Casemiro was correctly waved away.

So this finished as a non-event in the sun, with scant incident and only marginally more goalmouth action.

Three goals in 14 first-half minutes saw Fulham pip the champions-elect in a terrific match, handing them their first away defeat of the league season

Also going on: it’s summer!

We’re all Brann now.

Villa made it seven consecutive wins in all competitions thanks to a quick-fire first-half double

2 min: Forest – who deliberately kept their hosts waiting before kick-off, forming a huddle that went on a bit longer than was absolutely necessary – are kicking towards the Holte End in this first half.

Forest get the ball rolling. But only after a knee is taken: there’s no room for racism.

This has been a very, very long time coming for Crystal Palace supporters. The last occasion they were able to celebrate doing the double over Brighton in the 1932-33 season in the old Division Three South, the two clubs weren’t even rivals and it would be another 14 years before Roy Hodgson was born.

But with an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa to come later this month, Daniel Muñoz’s winner made it another memorable afternoon for Oliver Glasner’s side after Danny Welbeck had cancelled out Jean-Philippe Mateta’s 13th Premier League goal of the season. Not even late red cards for Eddie Nketiah and captain Marc Guéhi could dampen the celebrations in south London as Palace moved to within four points of Fabian Hürzeler’s side with a game in hand.

Ipswich’s hopes of retaining their Premier League status took a huge knock as they lost 2-1 at home to Wolves. The visitors came from behind to extend the gap between the two clubs to 12 points with seven games remaining. Ipswich took the lead through Liam Delap after 16 minutes but Pablo Sarabia equalised in the 72nd minute and Jørgen Strand Larsen completed the turnaround with six minutes remaining.

Kieran McKenna said of his team’s defeat: “I think it was a really competitive first half, the players gave absolutely everything to the first half and second half. If you don’t manage to get a second goal then they [Wolves] are going to go and put some pressure on and we probably weren’t able to maintain our energy levels.”

Liverpool do not require favours to secure the Premier League title but their neighbours gave them one anyway. Everton denied Arsenal the victory they needed to maintain extremely thin hopes of challenging the league leaders courtesy of Iliman Ndiaye’s penalty.

Leandro Trossard put Mikel Arteta’s visitors on course for a win their overall display just about deserved but a soft second-half spot-kick, awarded for a fall by Myles Lewis-Skelly into Jack Harrison, enabled Everton to secure a fifth draw in six Premier League matches. The upshot is that Arne Slot’s side need only 11 points from their final eight games to seal Liverpool’s 20th league championship. Arsenal can have no complaints over the destiny of this season’s title.