City now two points from league record
MANCHESTER City secured a comfortable 4-1 win over West Ham United at the London Stadium yesterday to move within two points of the Premier League’s single-season record.
PFA Young Player of the Year Leroy Sane got City – already confirmed as Premier League champions two weeks ago – up and running in the 13th minute as his strike from the edge of the penalty area was deflected in by Patrice Evra.
Former City defender Pablo Zabaleta then put through his own net 14 minutes later to score City’s 100th Premier League goal of the season, before Aaron Cresswell curled home a 42nd minute free kick to get West Ham back in the game.
Second-half goals from Gabriel Jesus and Fernandinho made sure of the win, leaving West Ham just three points above the relegation zone in 15th.
City’s tally of 102 goals for the season is one off Chelsea’s Premier League record set in 2009-10. They have 93 points, two short of the Premier League record which was also set by Chelsea in 2004-2005.
Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger’s final match at Old Trafford as Arsenal manager ended in defeat as a stoppage-time header from substitute Marouane Fellaini earned Manchester United a 2-1 Premier League win yesterday.
Paul Pogba had given United a 16th-minute lead before Henrikh Mkhitaryan, signed from United in January, brought Arsenal level, six minutes after the interval.
It looked like a youthful, mostly second-string Arsenal side had earned a respectable draw before Belgian Fellaini nodded in a deep cross from Ashley Young to grab all three points for Jose Mourinho’s side and secure their Champions League place.
The Arsenal manager, who will leave the club at the end of this season, has not tasted victory at United for 10 years and has never managed to win away against a Mourinho team in the Premier League.
Wenger, who clinched the league and Cup double at Old Trafford in 2002, was centre stage before the game as he was presented with a gift by former United manager Alex Ferguson and Mourinho, and the Frenchman was warmly applauded by the crowd.
Mourinho’s side are firmly on course for a second-place finish.
They are five points ahead of third-placed Liverpool with three games left. – Reuters