Premier League wrap-up: Man City go top

Manchester City beat Fulham 2-1 to finally pull ahead of Arsenal in the title race by one point with a game to spare.

The action started early in the 2nd minute when Tim Ream clattered into Julian Alvarez in the penalty box. Erling Haaland took and scored the following penalty, giving City an early lead and Haaland his 34th league goal.

Fulham struck back thanks to Andreas Pereira’s phenomenal long ball in the 14th minute. Harry Wilson got his head on the ball, tapping it to Carlos Vinicius, who cleanly and powerfully struck his shot to draw level.

Julian Alvarez answered with a great goal in the 36th minute. After Riyad Mahrez gave the ball to the Argentine ace off a counter-attack, he fought off a Fulham defender for the ball, gathered himself, and laced a beautifully-hit ball into the top-left corner to get the lead.

With the 2-1 loss, Fulham remains in tenth, too far from the top six places to challenge for a Europa League bid and too ahead of the struggling pack to worry about relegation.

City continue their title defense with a home game at West Ham that will affect both the bottom and the top of the table.

Fight for Champions League spots heat up

Thanks to a tense 1-0 win over Aston Villa, Manchester United has all but secured a top-four finish and a Champions League bid next season. They are seven games ahead of fifth-placed Liverpool with a game in hand.

Although Manchester United dominated the game and could have left the game with three or four goals, the only goal of the game came from Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes.

After Casemiro won a big header off an Aston Villa goal kick, Marcus Rashford broke away on a counter-attack with Bruno Fernandes supporting him.

Rashford fired a shot, and although Emiliano Martinez made the save, Fernandes’ rebounded fired United into the lead and gave them the full three points.

Liverpool took a commanding position in the race for Europa League action with a chaotic 4-3 win at Anfield against Tottenham, leading Tottenham by two points with a game in hand.

From the get-go, it looked like Liverpool would easily dismantle a struggling Tottenham, as Trent Alexander-Arnold sent a graceful long ball to Curtis Jones to score from in the 2nd minute, and Cody Gakpo completed a cut-back to Luis Diaz, who scored in the 5th minute.

A defensive blunder from Cristian Romero in the 15th minute, who needlessly slide tackled Gakpo in the box, gave Salah and Liverpool a penalty.

Salah converted, sending his strike directly down the middle to avenge misses at Bournemouth and against Arsenal.

Spurs fired back in the 38th minute. Ivan Perisic put Virgil van Dijk on skates as he disoriented him with a sudden change of movement, before squaring the ball to Harry Kane, who scored.

The 76th minute saw Romero chip a delicate ball over the Liverpool midfield to an unmarked Heung-min Son. Son easily converted his golden opportunity, and suddenly, it was game on.

Richarlison brought Spurs level in stoppage time. The Brazilian striker met Son’s whipped free-kick. He aimed his header toward the ground, but it bounced high and over Allisson.

But when you thought the goals would stop, it only continued in the 94th minute as Diogo Jota scored the match-winner. Right-winger Lucas Moura, who had somehow found with the back line, mishit a back pass, which Diogo Jota easily intercepted.

Jota took off, and no Spurs player could get to him in time as he powered his shot past Fraser Forster to win the game.

Relegation looks imminent for some

Bournemouth demolished Leeds at home 4-1, moving up from 14th to 13th as they went up to ten points above the red.

Leeds themselves stayed periously close to the edge in 16th place, just one point ahead of the relegation zone.

Jefferson Lerma opened the scoring in bunches, first rebounding a Philip Billing shot from outside the box in the 20th minute and then taking advantage of a poor Illan Meslier punch in the 24th minute.

Patrick Bamford struck back, steering his header past Neto thanks to an excellent Willy Gnonto cross, but Bournemouth held out. Lerma got onto a big Neto long ball before trying to square it to Kieffer Moore.

Rasmus Kristensen intercepted the ball, but Solanke swooped in to slot the ball past Meslier in the 63rd. Jaidon Anthony then dribbled the ball past the Leeds midfield before laying it off to Antoine Semenyo, whose strong shot squirted away from Meslier into the net.

Southampton’s 1-3 loss away to third-placed Newcastle may have doomed them, as they remain dead last, seven points away from safety.

Although Southampton’s counter-attack in the 41st minute, where Kamaldeen Sulemana squared the ball to Stuart Armstrong to get his goal, brought hope for Saints fans, the ensuing three Newcastle goals only deepend the already-existing discontent in St. Mary’s Stadium.

Callum Wilson got a brace off the bench, one where he converted a cut-back from Alexander Isak in the 54th minute, and one where he took advantage of some confusion among Southampton’s defense to add another in the 81st minute.

Theo Walcott’s embarassing own goal in the 79th minute, where he tried to clear away a corner, but shanked the ball into his own net, symbolized Southampton’s poor performance at Newcastle.

Photo credit: IMAGO / Colorsport