Late strike gives Hammers vital win in relegation fight
Andriy Yarmolenko’s lastgasp strike secured relegationthreatened West Ham a vital 3-2 Premier League win over Chelsea.
The Ukraine forward drilled home from Michail Antonio’s assist as the Hammers sunk the Blues at the London Stadium.
Tomas Soucek was denied a first-half goal by the Video Assistant Referee, but the Czech midfielder later did force a goal that stood.
Willian put Chelsea ahead from the penalty spot before Soucek levelled in first-half added time.
Antonio fired the Hammers in front after the break, but Brazil forward Willian whipped home a fine free-kick to level for Chelsea.
Yet as the Blues pressed for a winner, West Ham broke at pace and Yarmolenko sealed a big win in the Hammers’ fight for survival – and also a league double over their London rivals.
West Ham pulled themselves three points clear of the relegation zone, while Chelsea missed the chance to leapfrog Leicester into third place.
Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson struck early on as Leicester’s grip on a Champions League place was loosened yet further with a 2-1 defeat at Everton.
Kelechi Iheanacho gave the Foxes hope of arresting their damaging recent slump with a bizarre goal at Goodison Park but Everton held on.
Everton took a firm grip on the game after just 10 minutes. Impressive teenager Anthony Gordon raced onto a header from Lucas Digne down the left and squared the ball for the onrushing Richarlison. The Brazilian made no mistake with a fierce shot from six yards that flew past Kasper Schmeichel.
Everton doubled their lead with just 16 minutes gone when VAR awarded them a
2 Tomas Soucek celebrates his first-half equaliser with team-mate Jarrod Bowen last night. penalty. Digne swung the ball into the box and it appeared to strike the arm of Wilfred Ndidi as he got ahead of Michael Keane. Sigurdsson stroked home calmly from the spot.
Leicester got themselves back into the game when substitute Iheanacho got lucky but was rewarded for his persistence as he chased a ball into the box and Mason Holgate’s attempted clearance struck him on the head and went in.
With Maddison also off the bench and pulling the strings, Leicester turned up the pressure.
They were inches away from an equaliser when Pickford mishandled a cross in the drizzle and it rebounded off Keane towards goal but the defender recovered to clear off the line.
Struggling Bournemouth remainlanguishinginthepremier League relegation zone after a humiliating 4-1 home defeat to Newcastle extended their winless run to seven games.
First-half strikes from Dwight Gayle and Sean Longstaff put the mid-table Magpies on course for resounding success at the Vitality Stadium.
Substitutes Miguel Almiron and Valentino Lazaro completed the job as the Cherries capitulated to a club-record 19th defeat in a top-flight season.
Dan Gosling claimed an added-time consolation with the hosts’ first goal since football resumed following the coronavirus pandemic but, on this evidence, there is little to suggest they can extend their Premier League stay to a sixth season.
Arsenal captain Pierreemerick
Aubameyang returned to goalscoring form as he was gifted a brace by a Norwich side seemingly certain for Premier League relegation.
The Gunners seem to have found their flow following a slow restart and ran out 4-0 winners on their first Emirates Stadium appearance in almost four months.
Aubameyang was twice teed up by opposing players, either side of laying on Granit Xhaka’s first goal of the campaign.
There was even time for Cedric Soares, signed on loan from Southampton in January in a move made permanent last week, to mark his return from injury with a debut goal.
● Champions Liverpool will receive a guard of honour from Manchester City before the two sides clash at the Etihad Stadium tonight.