London, April 17 (IANS) Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League was cut to four points over Manchester City, who have a game in hand, after a dramatic afternoon saw them draw 2-2 at West Ham’s London Stadium.
Arsenal looked to be cruising to a comfortable win when Gabriel Jesus put them ahead over David Moyes’ strugglers after seven minutes, and Martin Odegaard doubled the lead three minutes later, reports Xinhua.
West Ham dug in and got back into the match in the 33rd minute, thanks to Said Benrahma’s penalty. Bukayo Saka had the chance to again extend Arsenal’s lead from the penalty spot in the 52nd minute but sent his effort well wide.
That was a decisive miss, as West Ham went down the other end and Jarrod Bowen scored what turned out to be the final goal of the game, although Michail Antonio rattled the woodwork for West Ham in the closing minutes.
Erling Haaland scored his 46th and 47th goals of the season as Manchester City on Saturday increased the pressure on Arsenal with a comfortable 3-1 win at home to Leicester City to spoil Dean Smith’s debut as Leicester coach.
The game was over by the 25th minute as first John Stones and then Haaland twice scored to make it 3-0, and although Kelechi Iheanacho pulled a goal back against his former club with 15 minutes left to play, City were never in danger.
Manchester United moved above Newcastle into third, with a 2-0 win away to Nottingham Forest, thanks to goals from Antony, who slotted home a rebound, and Diogo Dalot’s first Premier League goal for the club.
Nottingham Forest didn’t have a shot on target and have now gone 10 games without a win to increase the pressure on coach Steve Cooper.
Jacob Ramsey opened the scoring, and Ollie Watkins scored twice in the second half, as Aston Villa beat Newcastle 3-0 to extend their winning run to five games and end Newcastle’s five-game 100% record.
Dango Aboubacar scored an injury-time winner to give Bournemouth three huge points away to Tottenham, who had led through Son Heung-min’s opener, only for Matias Vila and Dominic Solanke to put Bournemouth ahead.
Arnaut Danjuma looked to have saved a point when he leveled in the 88th minute for Spurs, but Aboubacar kept calm to score an excellent individual goal for the visitors.
Diego Costa and Hwang Hee-chan both scored as Wolverhampton moved closer to safety with a 2-0 win at home to Brentford, while two second-half goals from Eberechi Eze gave Crystal Palace a 2-0 win away to Southampton to make it three wins in three games since Roy Hodgson returned.
Everton is in deep trouble after a 3-1 home defeat to Fulham, who ended a run of seven games without a win in all competitions with goals from Harrison Reed, Harry Wilson and Daniel James.
Chelsea lost again, with Frank Lampard unable to inspire a reaction as they were outplayed 2-1 by Brighton, who dominated after Conor Gallagher’s opener for Chelsea. Brighton had 10 shots on target and won the game with goals from Danny Welbeck and substitute Julio Enciso.
–IANS
cs
