Perfect day for Tottenham in Premier League’s top-4 fight
It was a Premier League day that might hardly have gone any higher for Tottenham.
With its 4-0 win at Aston Villa — impressed by Son Heung-min’s hat trick — and losses for each Arsenal and Manchester United on Saturday, Tottenham grew to become favourite to assert the fourth and ultimate Champions League qualification spot.
Antonio Conte’s workforce is hitting type simply as its rivals are imploding and now has a three-point cushion in fourth place over Arsenal, which slumped 2-1 at dwelling to Brighton for a 3rd loss in its final fourth video games.
As for United, a 1-0 loss at an Everton workforce that had been in freefall constituted one other low in what has changed into a determined season. One, remarkably, that might but finish with out qualification for European competitors.
United is in seventh place, six factors behind Tottenham and with loads of site visitors between them.
In Son, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski, Tottenham has an attacking triumvirate that’s proving unattainable to maintain down, they usually scored and assisted all 4 targets in opposition to Villa.
Son now has six targets in his final three league video games, having opened the scoring within the third minute after a shot from Kane deflected into his path on the fringe of the world. His end was unforgiving, kissing the put up on its method in similar to his third objective — within the 71st and off a cross from Kulusevski — which accomplished his first hat trick of the season.
Two glancing headers from Kane arrange the opposite targets from Kulusevski and Son within the fiftieth and 66th minutes.
Tottenham and Arsenal meet of their third-to-last matches of the season, respectively. Arsenal supervisor Mikel Arteta will simply be hoping his workforce is not out of the operating by then.
ARSENAL’S ABSENCES
The absences of first-choice left again Kieran Tierney and influential holding midfielder Thomas Partey are proving important for Arsenal, disrupting the workforce’s defensive solidity established beneath Arteta.
5 days after a 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace, Arsenal was undone by targets from Leandro Trossard and Enock Mwepu for Brighton. Martin Odegaard scored an 89th-minute comfort for Arsenal.
“We all know with the workforce we’ve obtainable the tough problem we’ve forward, that’s for positive,” Arteta mentioned. “The accidents make the state of affairs extra sophisticated however we aren’t on the lookout for excuses.”
One optimistic for Arsenal is the sport in hand it has over Tottenham, although that may be a rearranged assembly with third-place Chelsea.
LACKLUSTER UNITED
With a spot within the Champions League on the road, United has been held to a draw at dwelling by Leicester and now misplaced to a relegation-threatened workforce in Everton.
Anthony Gordon was Everton’s match-winner in opposition to United, together with his Twenty seventh-minute effort deflecting in off the outstretched leg of the unlucky Harry Maguire.
Interim United supervisor Ralf Rangnick refused to simply accept that the seek for a brand new supervisor to take over for subsequent season is leaving the workforce in limbo
“The gamers themselves ought to be desperate to play worldwide soccer, if doable Champions League,” Rangnick mentioned.
“But when we play like we did right here, we simply don’t deserve it. As a way to qualify for Europe you’ve got to have the ability to rating in 95 minutes in a sport like this.”
Everton moved 4 factors away from the underside three, with third-from-last Burnley visiting Norwich subsequent weekend.
ANOTHER HUMILIATION
Having misplaced 9-0 in every of the final two seasons, Southampton seemed set to be overwhelmed by the same scoreline when Chelsea romped right into a 6-0 lead after 54 minutes of their match at St. Mary’s Stadium.
Mercifully, Chelsea eased up within the ultimate half-hour forward of a visit to Actual Madrid within the Champions League on Tuesday and that is how the sport completed.
Mason Mount and Timo Werner each scored twice whereas there have been additionally targets for Marcos Alonso and Kai Havertz.
“It appears,” Southampton supervisor Ralph Hasenhuttl mentioned, “we’ve to have one sport like this a season, which isn’t good to look at and really onerous to take.”
Chelsea consolidated third place within the league and appears virtually sure of returning to the Champions League subsequent season, having moved eight factors away from fifth-place Arsenal. It’s 10 factors behind second-place Liverpool.
Within the day’s different sport, next-to-last Watford misplaced 3-0 to Leeds and slipped six factors from security.
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Extra AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
Steve Douglas, The Related Press
