This was always going to be a huge week of Premier League football and boy, did it deliver?
Manchester City took another big step towards winning a record fourth consecutive league title while Aston Villa qualified for the Champions League; meanwhile the battle for sixth place continued with Newcastle United, Chelsea and Manchester United all in action on a busy Wednesday night.
The match of the week saw Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur host Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. Spurs needed to win to keep their hopes of a Champions League place alive while the Sky Blues had to avoid dropping points to keep their title destiny in their own hands.
After an uneventful first half the game sparked into life soon after the break as the most lethal combination in football struck for City, Kevin De Bruyne teeing up Erling Haaland for his 26th goal of the campaign. The big Norwegian scored an injury time penalty to make it 27 for him and 2-0 to City after Pedro Porro had fouled Jeremy Doku. Haaland now leads the race for the Golden Boot by five goals and the Sky Blues are on top of the Premier League table with just one game remaining.
As Spurs tried to get back into the game City’s substitute goalkeeper Stefan Ortega made saves to deny Heung-Min Son and Dejan Kulusevski to help Guardiola’s side record an eight successive league win; now they either need to beat West Ham United on Sunday or hope Arsenal fail to beat Everton to secure their league title.
Tottenham fans were torn; while they have missed out on Champions League football they were happy to taunt Arsenal fans after Haaland had given City a lead. Postecoglou was unimpressed when asked about it; saying: I don’t care mate. I just want to win. I want to be successful at this club. I think the last 48 hours have revealed the foundations are fairly fragile; outside the club, inside the club, everywhere.
“I probably misread the situation as to what I think is important and the endeavour to become a winning team, but that’s okay.”
Ouch!
Spurs’ loss is Villa’s gain
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa came back from a two goal deficit to draw 3-3 with Liverpool on Monday, and that, combined with Tottenham’s defeat to Manchester City left the Villains five points clear of Spurs and on the way to the Champions League. At the start of the campaign the Premier League 2024 betting odds pitched Villa at around seventh, where they finished last term, but they have been in the top four throughout and thoroughly deserve their place.
Colombian striker Jhon Duran climbed off the bench to score two late goals after Liverpool had cruised into a 3-1 lead. Emiliano Martinez’ own goal gave the Reds a perfect start and Villa equalised through Youri Tielemens before Cody Gakpo and Jarell Quansah gave Liverpool the upper hand. But Duran struck on 85 and 88 minutes to take the roof off Villa Park.
Martinez has been a brilliant keeper for Villa and World Cup winners Argentina but he won’t like this stat: he is the first goalkeeper to score three own goals in Premier League history.
Villa will finish in fourth place and Liverpool third.
Blues are winning the Top Six Race
Wednesday’s Premier League 2024 results saw Chelsea strengthen their grip on sixth place after they beat Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 while Manchester United damaged Newcastle United’s hopes with a 3-2 win.
Chelsea’s trip to Brighton, a game we previewed here at SBOTOP, went the way of Mauricio Pochettino’s Blues as Cole Palmer made it 22 goals for the campaign with a sublime first half header and Christopher Nkunku made it 2-0 soon after the break. Chelsea were coasting but they had a disruptive last ten minutes as returning skipper Reece James was sent off and Danny Welbeck scored a late consolation for the Seagulls.
Up in Manchester The Old Trafford crowd saw plenty of action in their game and the Red Devils went into the half time break with a 1-0 lead, though the hosts could have been behind as Casemiro cleared a Dan Burn header off the line and VAR decided to ignore a trip by Amrabat on Anthony Gordon. But Kobbie Mainoo, who beat the offside trap finished coolly to put Manchester United ahead.
The Magpies came out for the second half in a hurry and Gordon levelled with a brilliant finish after Jacob Murphy found him at the back post. But, against the run of play the Red Devils were back in front when Amad Diallo scored his first Premier League goal with a sweetly struck shot and Rasmus Hojlund made it 3-1 with a late strike. Lewis Hall pulled one back with a brilliant strike but it was too little too late for the Magpies.
Chelsea are three points clear of Manchester United and Newcastle United going into the final weekend.
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