United blasts Watford to stay in top-4 hunt
Aubameyang brace helps Arsenal edge Everton • Chelsea boosts hopes, Villa and Bournemouth slump
MANCHESTER (Reuters) – Manchester United kept alive its hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four after goals from Bruno Fernandes, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood secured a 3-0 home win over Watford on Sunday.
Portugal midfielder Fernandes scored his first goal for United with a 42nd-minute penalty before Martial and Greenwood netted fine individual efforts to lift the Red Devils two places up to fifth on 41 points.
United is three points behind fourthplaced Chelsea and one ahead of Tottenham Hotspur while struggling Watford stayed 19th on 24 points.
The home team’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer praised his team.
“A very good win, two good wins and two clean sheets, some goals to celebrate, now we want to kick on,” said Solskjaer, also referring to United’s 2-0 win at Chelsea last Monday. “There are big games coming up now.”
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice to earn Arsenal a 3-2 win over Everton on Sunday, extending the Gunners’ unbeaten start to 2020.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Everton ahead in the first minute with an acrobatic volley after poor defending from David Luiz but the Gunners reacted well.
Young forward Eddie Nketiah, who started ahead of Alexandre Lacazette, leveled for Arsenal in the 27th minute and six minutes later Aubameyang put the home side ahead.
Brazilian Richarlison brought Everton back on level terms though just before the interval, but Arsenal struck straight after the break with Aubameyang heading in a Nicolas Pepe cross.
On Saturday, Chelsea boosted its hopes of a top-four finish with a 2-1 win over London rival Tottenham Hotspur, while at the bottom Aston Villa and Bournemouth drifted deeper into trouble with damaging defeats.
Manchester City cut Liverpool’s lead to 19 points as it won 1-0 at Leicester City in the battle for the runner-up spot.
Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso returned to the Chelsea starting lineup and responded with a goal each in the derby against Spurs at Stamford Bridge.
It was only Chelsea’s sixth win in 14 home Premier League games this season, but it was a timely one as the Blues remain fourth, the last Champions league qualification spot, with 44 points from 27 games, four more than Jose Mourinho’s Spurs.
Erik Lamela’s shot deflected in off Antonio Rudiger to give Spurs some hope near the end, but Chelsea was the deserved winner.
VAR was the big talking point once again, however, as Tottenham’s Giovani Lo Celso was spared a red card for a dreadful tackle on Chelsea skipper Cesar Azpilicueta.
While referee Michael Oliver did not punish Lo Celso, video replays confirmed the severity of his stamp on Azpilicueta’s shin, but surprisingly a VAR check found him not guilty.
According to BT Sport, which was showing the game live, VAR official David Coote admitted he had made a mistake in not recommending a red card for the midfielder.
“Saying afterwards that they made a mistake is not good enough because they had a couple of minutes to try to get it right,” said Chelsea manager Frank Lampard, who completed a league double over his old Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
Opportunist goals from Shane Long and Stuart Armstrong condemned Villa to a 2-0 defeat at mid-table Southampton.
Villa stays 17th on 25 points, one point above the relegation zone and a point behind Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth, which fell to a 3-0 loss at Burnley where VAR was also in the dock.
Burnley grabbed the lead in the 53rd minute with Czech striker Vydra claiming his second goal in as many games, but the match turned on a remarkable minute of VAR-reviewed action on the hour mark.
Burnley appealed in vain for a penalty, arguing that Adam Smith had handled a Dwight McNeil cross -- the resulting counter-attack ended with Callum Wilson feeding Harry Wilson, who clipped the ball
past Bournemouth goalkeeper Nick Pope.
But VAR ruled that Smith had indeed handled – canceling out the Bournemouth goal and awarding Burnley a penalty which Jay Rodriguez converted to make it 2-0 after 61 minutes when moments earlier the score had stood at 1-1.
McNeil rounded off the win with a superb solo goal in the 87th to send the Clarets up to eighth.
Manchester City was rightly awarded a penalty after a VAR check at Leicester later, only for Sergio Aguero’s spot kick to be saved by Kasper Schmeichel – City’s fourth successive missed penalty in the Premier League.
But Gabriel Jesus, on as a substitute, spared Aguero’s blushes when he fired home a late winner that lifted City seven points above Leicester and 19 behind leader Liverpool, which hosts West Ham on Monday.
Sixth-place Sheffield United had begun to dream of a possible Champions League place, but was frustrated in a 1-1 draw at home with lowly Brighton & Hove Albion.
Crystal Palace broke a three-match losing streak in the league as full-back Patrick van Aanholt’s thunderbolt free-kick gave Roy Hodgson’s side a 1-0 home win over Newcastle United.