Youth to fore as clubs set sights on Europe
Some of the top Premier League teams are putting their faith in youth in the high-stakes finale to the longest football season in England.
Two 18-year-old English players justified that backing yesterday. On a day of more twists in the race for Champions League qualification, Mason Greenwood showed why he has been labelled the best finisher at Manchester United with stunning goals off either foot to help his team out of some early trouble and to a 5-2 win over Bournemouth at an empty Old Trafford.
Arsenal midfielder Bukayo Saka is another teenage academy product bursting onto the scene this season and his first Premier League goal set Arsenal on their way to a 2-0 win at Wolverhampton, who lost ground in the fight for a top-five finish.
Left back, left wing, central midfield. The versatile Saka has been deployed in several positions by Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta and it doesn’t faze him.
‘‘Wherever the boss wants to put me, I want to play,’’ said Saka, who signed a long-term deal with Arsenal last Thursday.
The latest impressive displays by Greenwood and Saka came two days after Phil Foden, a 20-year-old Englishman, played a starring role for Manchester City in their 4-0 win over newly crowned champions Liverpool.
Two strikers at the other end of their careers scored key goals to ignite the Champions League qualification hopes of Leicester and Chelsea, the teams in third and fourth place, respectively.
Jamie Vardy, 33, passed the 100-goal mark in Premier League goals by netting twice as Leicester beat Crystal Palace 3-0 for their first win since the restart.
Olivier Giroud, 33, was recalled by Chelsea and scored the opener in a 3-0 win over Watford.
With five rounds left, Leicester stayed a point clear of Chelsea and three points ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United. Wolves are a further three points back in sixth.
Fifth place will be enough to qualify for the Champions League this season if second-placed Manchester City fail with their appeal to overturn a two-year European ban imposed by Uefa.
In the other game yesterday, Brighton virtually secured another season in the Premier League with a 1-0 win at last-placed Norwich, who stayed seven points adrift of safety and appear doomed.