Manchester City took advantage of Liverpool’s stumble in the race to the Premier League title as the champions moved one step closer to retaining their crown with a 5-0 demolition of Newcastle on Sunday. Japan. Elsewhere in a dramatic day at both top of the table, Arsenal beat relegation-threatened Leeds 2-1 to boost their bid for a top-four spot. Pep Guardiola’s side took control before half-time at Etihad Stadium thanks to goals from Raheem Sterling and Aymeric Laporte. Rodri won Man City’s third after the previous break Phil Foden and Sterling scored in injury time as they moved to the top of the table.
Liverpool knocked the champions from bottom of the table despite dropping two points in a 1-1 draw against Tottenham on Saturday.
But Man City is currently 3 points ahead of Liverpool, with 3 games remaining for both teams. Guardiola’s army has a better goal difference than the Red Devils by four goals.
Next, Liverpool will face Aston Villa on Tuesday, while Man City face Wolves 24 hours later.
City’s outing against Newcastle is the ideal way to recover from a painful Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Real scored twice in the final seconds of regular time before winning in extra time, prompting Guardiola to lament that he had “no words to help” his players through the defeat.
But City can banish those demons by winning their fourth English championship in five seasons and this is a step in the right direction.
“We’ve been doing this every three days for five years. If some people doubt us, they don’t know this team. It’s one of the best teams I’ve coached in my life,” said Guardiola.
“Fantastic afternoon. Three points, nine points to play, four points on goal difference. Another final on Wednesday.”
The only concern for Man City was Guardiola’s post-match revelation that key defenders John Stones, Ruben Dias and Kyle Walker will miss the rest of the season with injury.
“Ruben, Kyle and John will be off until the end of the season,” he said.
At the 19th minute, Joao Cancelo a nod Ilkay Gundogan crosses to Sterling and he heads in from close range.
City doubled the gap after 38 minutes when the Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka couldn’t stop Gundogan’s volley and Laporte rolled home.
Rodri scored with a header in the 61st minute from Kevin De BruyneCorner, then Foden redirected Oleksandr Zinchenko’s shot into the net in the 90th minute.
Sterling finished the game in injury time with a cool finish from Jack Grealishovercome.
Eddie Nketiah, former Leeds player, scored twice in the first 10 minutes at Emirates Stadium as Mikel ArtetaTheir team got their fourth win in a row.
Leeds has a captain Luke Ayling sent and, although Diego Llorente pulled back a goal in the 66th minute, too little, too late for those fighting for Jesse Marsch.
4th place is Arsenal 4 points ahead of Tottenham, with 3 games remaining for both teams in the race to qualify for next season’s Champions League through a place in the top 4.
– Everton are out of the bottom three of the table –
Arsenal will visit Tottenham on Thursday knowing that a win in the north London derby will secure their first Champions League campaign since the 2016-17 season.
“We’re going to go into that game with the same enthusiasm we always do but know this could be a defining moment,” said Arteta.
Leeds dropped to the relegation zone, ranked 3rd at the bottom of the table because they were behind Burnley on goal difference.
“Our backs are against the wall. We are in the relegation zone but we have to fight for our lives,” Marsch said.
Everton made the most of Leeds’ stumble to climb out of the bottom three as they beat Leicester 2-1 – their first away success in the league since August.
Ukraine left-back Vitaliy Mykolenko opened the scoring for Everton in the sixth minute.
Patson Daka equalized for Leicester but Mason Holgate won with a close-range finish in the 30th minute.
Everton, hoping to avoid relegation to the second division for the first time since 1954, are one point above the relegation zone with a game in hand.
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“We’re still in the relegation battle. If we want to get out of it, it has to come together as a club. We’ve seen that in recent weeks,” said the Everton boss. Frank Lampard speak.
West Ham crushed relegated Norwich 4-0 at Carrow Road to ease the pain of their Europa League semi-final defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.
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