Title race continues as Arsenal, Man City enjoy comfortable wins

MADRID | Xinhua | The race for the Premier League title continues as both Arsenal and Manchester City won their games on Saturday afternoon.

Arsenal dominated the first half of their home win over Bournemouth, but didn’t take the lead until the stroke of halftime when visiting goalkeeper Mark Travers brought down Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka scored the resulting penalty.

Bournemouth tried to react in the second half, but the game was effectively over after Leandro Trossard swept home in the 70th minute and Declan Rice scored from a narrow angle in injury time.

Arsenal’s win put the pressure on Manchester City, who dropped four points behind ahead of their match at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Any doubts over possible nerves at the Etihad Stadium were resolved by Erling Haaland’s first half hat-trick, with the striker scoring a penalty, a header into the far corner on the net and a second penalty as he was fouled while about to shoot.

Hwang Hee-chan pulled a goal back for Wolves in the 53rd minute, but Haaland’s fourth of the game a minute later restored City’s four-goal lead and Julian Alvarez made it 5-1 with five minutes left to play.

Newcastle United took a big step towards a place in Europe for next season, while at the same time all-but sinking Burnley’s hopes of avoiding relegation, with a 4-1 win away in Turf Moor.

Burnley started brightly, but fell behind after 19 minutes when Callum Wilson scored from close range, after Alexander Isak’s effort had been initially blocked.

Sean Longstaff made it 2-0 with a calm finish into the bottom corner in the 35th minute and Bruno Guimaraes added a third before halftime with a neatly placed finish.

Isak missed a second half penalty, but rapidly made amends with his eighth goal in seven matches from a low cross from the right to make it 4-0 to the visitors.

Dara O’Shea headed an 86th minute goal for Burnley, but it was little consolation and they now need a miracle to survive.

Nottingham Forest are now favorites to avoid relegation after they recovered from conceding an early goal to win 3-1 away to already-relegated Sheffield United.

Ben Brereton put Sheffield ahead in the 17th minute, but Callum Hudson-Odoi’s first goal of the game leveled in the 27th minute and Ryan Yates put Forest ahead in the 51st minute, before Hudson-Odoi’s second goal sealed a vital win with 25 minutes left to play.

The result lifts Forest three points ahead of Luton Town who missed a chance to climb out of the bottom three for 24 hours on Friday night as they were held 1-1 at home to Everton.

Everton had nothing to play for, but Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s 24th minute penalty put them ahead before the fit-again Elijah Adebayo leveled seven minutes later for the home side in a very even match.

Saturday’s other game was a 0-0 draw between Brentford and Fulham in a game between two teams with only pride to play for.