Football: Soccer-Man City and Villa close gap on Arsenal, Liverpool edge Sunderland
MANCHESTER, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Manchester City halved Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League to three points with a 3-0 victory over visitors Fulham, while Aston Villa stayed in the game with a late 1-0 home win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Wednesday.
Sunderland’s unbeaten home record throughout the season ended when Liverpool won 1–0 to bolster “their top four hopes”.
Nottingham Forest squandered a chance to move away from the bottom three by drawing 0-0 with Wolverhampton Wanderers, while second-placed Burnley used a remarkable 3-2 comeback victory at Crystal Palace to boost their survival hopes.
City have little margin for error in their pursuit of leaders Arsenal, who are at Brentford on Thursday, but put in a clinical display to shake off Fulham.
Three goals in 15 first-half minutes secured the points for Pep Guardiola’s second-placed side, who moved to 53 points from 26 games and kept the pressure on Arsenal.
Antoine Semenyo gave City the lead in the 24th minute, then set up Nico O’Reilly with a precise pass for the second.
Phil Foden then found Erling Haaland who sent in a shot for his 22nd league goal of the campaign to confirm City’s 17th consecutive Premier League victory over Fulham, the longest run by one team over another in the competition.
“At certain times the team grows, people come back. It’s really very important,” Guardiola said.
BRIGHTON OWN GOAL HANDS VILLA WINS
Villa’s slim title chances seemed to diminish as they labored at home to Brighton.
But they got the points when the visitors’ Jack Hinshelwood scored his own goal after 86 minutes. Brighton midfielder James Milner, 40, came off the bench for his 653rd appearance in the top flight, equaling Gareth Barry’s record.
Captain Virgil van Dijk was on target for Liverpool who became the first team to leave Sunderland’s Stadium of Light with three points this season.
The Dutchman met a Mohamed Salah corner just after the hour mark and the ball crossed the line despite the efforts of Sunderland’s Habib Diarra to keep it out.
Liverpool are in sixth place with 42 points, two behind Chelsea who drew 2-2 at home to Leeds United on Tuesday.
“We can’t deny that it seems very important, but there are still 12 games to go. So we have to keep improving and try to find consistency,” Van Dijk said.
FOREST FIRES ARE WHITE IN L’impasse des loups
Forest made a remarkable 35 attempts at goal against Wolves at the City Ground, but none of them found the back of the net as Sean Dyche’s side dropped two important points.
The draw left them in 17th place, just three points behind third from bottom West Ham United.
“It’s very frustrating to dominate a game like that, with so many chances and there were a lot of good chances, but you have to find that decisive moment,” Dyche said.
“The crowd gets nervous, the team gets nervous, there’s a lot of pressure on these games.”
Wolves have nine points, but are now just two points off the lowest ever Premier League total – Derby County’s 11 in the 2007-08 season.
Burnley ended a 16-match winless streak in remarkable fashion at Selhurst Park.
Palace were cruising after two goals from new signing Jorgen Strand Larsen in the first 33 minutes.
Burnley hadn’t recorded a shot on target in the opening 39 minutes, but bizarrely they were ahead at half-time.
Hannibal Mejbri halved the deficit with a sweet shot and Jaidon Anthony then curled a low effort inside the post to equalize. Burnley then took the lead in first-half stoppage time as Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson parried a shot, but the ball trickled onto the foot of teammate Jefferson Lerma.
Palace were unable to respond after the break as Burnley secured their first league win since October, leaving them nine points behind Forest.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; editing by Toby Davis and Ken Ferris)