English Premier League: Chelsea draw at United to boost top-four chances, Man City hold firm at Burnley

With two games remaining in the season, the result put fourth-placed Chelsea on 68 points, two clear of Arsenal who are fifth and still three ahead of sixth-placed United in the race to earn a Champions League berth for next season.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s United have run out of steam, having won just two out of their last 10 games in all competitions.

The hosts dominated the first half, fully deserving to take the lead when marauding left back Luke Shaw latched onto a chip into the area from Romelu Lukaku and passed across the goal for Mata to score against his old club on his 31st birthday.

But De Gea, whose form has dipped in recent weeks with a string of uncharacteristic errors, failed to deal with Rudiger’s shot and Alonso pounced to bring Chelsea level in the 43rd.

Nervous Man City hold firm at Burnley

It was nervy and scrappy but a 1-0 win at Burnley on Sunday was enough to return Manchester City to the top of the Premier League and keep them on track for back-to-back titles.

Sergio Aguero’s 63rd-minute goal at Turf Moor moved City onto 92 points, restoring their one-point advantage over Liverpool at the summit with just two games remaining.

Pep Guardiola’s side now need to win their final matches at home to Leicester City and away to Brighton and Hove Albion to retain the title and break the hearts of second-placed Liverpool who have tracked them all the way.

The victory was the 12th win in a row for City, who have shown no signs of giving Juergen Klopp’s Liverpool, who have lost just once all campaign, the slightest opening.

Yet the afternoon did provide some encouragement for those in Merseyside following the match, with City frustrated until the second half when they broke through with an uncharacteristically scrappy goal.

Aguero’s shot was chested out and cleared by Matt Lowton on the goalline but technology ruled the effort had crossed — a minor compensation for Guardiola after a VAR video review had led to his team’s elimination from the Champions League.

It was an unusual sight to see Guardiola take off two forwards in the latter stages and replace them with central defenders and while the City boss joked that he was “trembling” at the end, his counterpart Sean Dyche claimed the Spaniard had been yelling for his team to get the ball in the corner.

City had enough possession and chances to have put the game to bed well before the tense final minutes, but even if Burnley created very little attacking threat, Guardiola was leaving nothing to chance.

“In the first half we didn’t create too much but of course it is what it is,” said Guardiola, who pointed the finger at a dry pitch and what he viewed as long grass for his side lacking their usual slickness.

“Ninety-two points is incredible – it is in our hands, we must win our next two games and our next one against Leicester.”

“We didn’t concede one shot on target or one corner, we are a small team but we are smart, in the first half the pitch was so dry and it was slow but in the second half we knew we had to score our goal.

“In the last minutes anything can happen, always it is difficult if you cannot close the game,” he said.

FIERCE BLAST
The visitors struggled to get into their usual rhythm in the first half but came out strongly after the break and Burnley keeper Tom Heaton did well to keep out a fierce blast from Sergio Aguero at the near post.

Burnley were fortunate to escape a penalty appeal when a drive from Bernardo Silva appeared to strike the arm of Burnley’s Ashley Barnes.

Heaton did well to keep out another fierce drive, this time from Bernardo Silva, before City finally took the lead.

Raheem Sterling went close to a second but Burnley defender Ben Mee produced a wonderful goalline clearance to keep the Clarets in the game.

Burnley, however, pushed hard at the end with Guardiola bringing on John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi as City held firm to claim the three points.

“It’s fantastic for me to see Pep screaming ‘Get the ball in corner’ – that was pleasing for me… that’s quite amusing,” said Dyche.

Yet the biggest smile at the end of the game belonged to Aguero, City’s record scorer, who set another milestone with his latest goal.

The Argentine became only the second player to score 20 goals or more in six different Premier League seasons.

Only Alan Shearer, who managed seven seasons, has done it more often, and only Thierry Henry can match Aguero’s record of scoring 20 or more in five consecutive campaigns.

“I am so very happy for the win,” he said. “I think it was over the line. I am very happy with the goal because the first half we had chances. I was happy for the technology,” he said.

Arsenal’s top-four hopes hit by Leicester

Arsenal have now been beaten in four of last five EPL games. (Source: Reuters)

Ten-man Arsenal suffered a 3-0 Premier League defeat at Leicester City on Sunday in another blow to their hopes of finishing in the top four and qualifying for the Champions League.

Goals from Youri Tielemans and a Jamie Vardy double ensured Arsenal suffered a fourth loss in their last five league games, three of which have now come on the road.

They remain in fifth on 66 points, with top-four rivals Manchester United in sixth place (64 points) playing fourth-placed Chelsea (67) later on Sunday.

Unai Emery’s side had defender Ainsley Maitland-Niles sent off for a second booking in the 36th minute for a late challenge on James Maddison. He had been cautioned earlier for a foul on Ben Chilwell.

“The second yellow card gave us a lot of problems,” Emery said. “I don’t agree with the first yellow card. It’s the seventh minute of the game, but I respect the referee.

“It did change it a lot to play with one player less because we prepared with our game plan to be strong defensively. But with the red card the plan changed.”

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers said referee Michael Oliver had no choice but to send off the 21-year-old.

“I think Michael had no choice,” Rodgers said. “There was a number of fouls and it was his second foul in the game that got him a second yellow so it was a good decision.

“It was probably an accumulation of fouls and young Ben Chilwell staying on his feet in the box might have saved him from going earlier.”

Emery withdrew Alex Iwobi at halftime to bring centre back Laurent Koscielny on to shore up the defence but Leicester dominated possession and had 12 shots on target in the match to Arsenal’s one.

Arsenal had goalkeeper Bernd Leno to thank as the German made a string of saves to keep the visitors in the contest, but even he had no chance when Tielemans sneaked past the defence to head home Maddison’s cross in the 59th minute.

Leicester doubled their lead through Vardy who latched on to goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel’s long ball to first hit the crossbar and then head home the rebound with Leno in no-man’s land.

Vardy grabbed another in stoppage time when Ricardo Pereira dribbled past the defence and squared the ball for the English striker who scored his 18th league goal of the season.

Leicester moved up to eighth and now have a chance of finishing seventh, potentially qualifying for the Europa League next season. Brendan Rodgers’ side sit three points behind seventh-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers with two games to go.

Arsenal can still qualify for the Champions League if they win the Europa League and Emery said they had to shift their focus to the first leg of the semi-final on Thursday when they host Spanish side Valencia.

“We are thinking in the present and the next match is Valencia,” Emery said. “Then we think about Brighton (next Sunday) and winning.

“At the beginning of the season, during the season and now, we know we have possibility in the Europa League also and in the Premier League we will play Brighton at home and try to win.”