EPL Round-up: Arsenal dent Man Utd top-four hopes
Ralf Rangnick admitted Manchester United’s hopes of Champions League football next season are over after Arsenal took control of the battle for a top-four finish in the Premier League with a 3-1 win at the Emirates.
Nuno Tavares, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka struck for Mikel Arteta’s men to move them two points clear of Tottenham who drew 0-0 with Brentford.
Sixth-placed United are six points adrift of the top four and could miss out on European football completely for only the second time since 1990.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 22nd goal of the season on his return to the United side after missing Tuesday’s 4-0 thrashing at Liverpool due to the death of his newborn son.
However, Ronaldo will regret letting Bruno Fernandes take a secondhalf penalty with the game finely poised at 2-1 to the Gunners.
At the Ethad, Gabriel Jesus scored four goals as Manchester City thrashed Watford 5-1 to open up a four-point lead in the
Premier League title race.
City are five games away from defending their title, but manager Pep Guardiola has warned they will need to win every one to hold off Liverpool’s storming end to the season.
Similarly, Aston Villa ended a four-game losing run with a draw at Leicester in which both sides struggled to provide moments of quality in a scrappy end-of-season game.
For Leicester, it was a first Premier League clean sheet since 5 March but perhaps their biggest positive was a return off the bench for striker Jamie Vardy, who has featured just twice in 2022 because
of injury.
At Carrow Road, Joelinton marked his 100th Premier League appearance with two goals as Newcastle moved up to ninth and sent Norwich closer to relegation.