EPL round-up: Palace safe, Liverpool comeback, Sunderland and Wenger on the brink
Easy does it for London and Manchester pairs
Six of the top seven picked up wins to keep up the pace at the top of the standings.
Spurs kicked things off with a classy 4-0 win against Watford to make it 12 wins on the bounce at White Hart Lane. Unbeaten this season at home, it was easy to see why they have ben so imperious on their own patch, as Dele Alli scored his 16th goal of the season, a wonderful curled strike, and Son’s brace either side of half-time means that Chelsea’s only challengers for the title dealt with Kane’s absence for another week.
Man City and Chelsea, who played later on Saturday, picked up straightforward 3-1 wins against Hull City and Bournemouth respectively.
While Hull have shown admirable resilience in the fight to stay up and their home form has been outstanding, they were blown away at the Etihad Stadium. Despite a late consolation goal thanks to another gaffe from City keeper Claudio Bravo, they never stood a chance.
As for Chelsea, it was business as usual as Hazard, Costa and Alonso found the net to keep the gap at the top to seven points.
United drove another nail into Sunderland’s coffin with an easy 3-0 win. It was a non-contest from start to finish at the Stadium of Light, with the highlight being the announcement of Marouane Fellaini as captain for Jose Mourinho’s side. Goals from Ibrahimovic, Mkhitaryan and Rashford pushed Sunderland further towards to the drop.
Liverpool battle, Lukaku settles thriller
The only top seven side who seemed to have to work for their win this week was Liverpool. Playing away to Stoke, Jürgen Klopp’s squad, plagued by injuries, seemed thinner than ever, and it reflected in his selection. Liverpool lined up in an unconventional 3-5-2 with teenagers Woodburn and Alexander-Arnold in from the start, and it showed.
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| Lukaku wrapped things up with his 23rd goal of the League campaign, stretching out in front in the race for the Golden Boot. |
Laboured in attack, the Reds failed to produce a single shot on target. To make matters worse, Jonathan Walters nodded his side in front a minute from the break after the visitors had a penalty shout turned down at the other end.
Klopp’s hand was forced, and he had no choice but to bring on Brazilian duo Coutinho and Firmino who were suffering from illness and fatigue.
They battled on and answered their boss’s call with two quickfire goals, the second a rasping volley from Firmino to turn the game on its head. Mignolet, to his credit, made fine point-blank saves from Adam and then Berahino to preserve the win with which Liverpool held on to 3rd place.
Everton ended Leicester’s perfect run under Craig Shakespeare when they defeated the Champions 4-2 at Goodison. The tone for the thriller was set inside the first 30 seconds when teenage sensation Tom Davies opened the scoring for the home side after good work from Mirallas.
Leicester responded magnificently via Slimani and Albrighton to make it 2-1 with barely 10 minutes gone.
Everton hit back hard first through Lukaku, who got on the end of a fine Ross Barkley cross to make level the scores at 2-2, and then Jagielka who rose highest from a corner to send his side in front after a crazy first 45.
Lukaku wrapped things up with his 23rd goal of the League campaign, stretching out in front in the race for the Golden Boot.
More twists in the race for survival
Whilst Sunderland and Middlesbrough seem doomed, the fate of the last relegation spot is still undecided. Another win for Palace makes it a two-way shootout between Hull and Swansea, but losses for both left us none the wiser as to who would beat the drop.
West Ham were on a run of five defeats that saw them edge closer to danger, so their clash against Swansea took up even more importance.
The Swans, who showed such promising signs of recovery in the wake of Paul Clement’s arrival, were struggling again in the absence of their key striker Fernando Llorente.
Cheikhou Kouyaté’s precision drive from distance was enough to make it four losses from five for Swansea who stayed in the bottom three, as Slaven Bilic relieved some of the pressure surrounding him.
Palace thrash embarrassing Arsenal
Sam Allardyce has shown again why he is the Premier League's survival specialist. Never once relegated at his five previous Premiership clubs, he had no intention of tarnishing that record and the comeback he's sparked since taking over with the club has been admirable.
With four wins in their last five, Palace were on a sharp rise when they hosted Arsenal. The Gunners had relieved some of the pressure surrounding manager Arsène Wenger with an encouraging, if not desirable, 2-2 draw against City and a 3-0 win against West Ham at home.
They were second best from start to finish. Struggling in equal measure to create and deal with Palace's superior physicality, Townsend's 20th minute goal was just one of the many moments the Gunners defence was caught at the back.
Palace continued their dominance in the second half, enjoying little possession but carving out chances left, right and center, and by the time Arsenal's pitiful defending let in Yohan Cabaye for 2-0, it was just a question of how many.
Townsend's trip was incorrectly deemed as a foul by Arsenal's stand-in keeper Emiliano Martínez. It mattered little as the away side were beaten well before Milivojevic scored his penalty to cap off another thoroughly miserable afternoon for the North Londoners.
Four consecutive away defeats make it Wenger's worst run in his 21 years at the club.
As the chants of "Wenger Out" reverberated louder than ever at Selhurst Park, Allardyce found safety at the big boys' expense once again. Their fine run of form has seen them move six points clear of the drop, with a game in hand to boot.
The Eagles look set to take flight again in the 2017/18 Premier League.