Ollie Watkins (left) was on track in Aston Villa’s 4-1 win over Newcastle (Darren Staples)
Liverpool closed to inside one win of the Premier League title, whereas Leicester’s relegation was confirmed on Sunday with Ipswich set to hitch the Foxes within the Championship subsequent season.
The battle for Champions League locations is heating up within the closing weeks of the season as victories for Manchester Metropolis, Chelsea and Aston Villa tightened the race even additional.
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AFP Sports activities seems at three speaking factors from this weekend’s motion:
Premier League poles aside
Final season was the primary time since 1997-98 and solely second time in Premier League historical past that every one three promoted sides had been relegated.
Nonetheless, that’s now set to occur for a second consecutive season, sparking fears over the rising gulf between the Premier League and the second tier.
Leicester’s 1-0 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday meant they’ve joined Southampton in being mathematically relegated with 5 video games to play.
Ipswich stay alive solely on a technicality as they’re 15 factors adrift with 5 video games left and have a 20-goal inferior aim distinction to West Ham.
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“I feel you see among the many promoted sides that it is such a mountain to climb to remain within the Premier League,” mentioned Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy, who has gained simply two of his 20 league matches in control of the Foxes.
“The hole seems to be too massive for promoted sides.”
The underside three have mixed for simply eight wins in 91 matches towards the opposite 17 groups within the division.
‘Fuming’ Watkins fuels Villa’s hearth
Ollie Watkins took out his anger in the direction of Aston Villa boss Unai Emery by opening the scoring inside the primary minute of a powerful 4-1 rout of third-placed Newcastle.
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The England striker admitted to “fuming” that he had not began both leg of Villa’s Champions League quarter-final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
Villa’s talisman since becoming a member of the membership in 2020, Watkins has been squeezed out by the wealth of attacking expertise that Emery acquired within the January window.
“Champions League, now we have put in numerous exhausting graft to get to that place,” mentioned Watkins. “I performed 20 minutes towards PSG in each video games. I am not going to lie, I used to be fuming that I wasn’t taking part in and I let him know that.”
But, the additional energy in depth on the Spaniard’s disposal for the reason that arrivals of Marcus Rashford, Marco Asensio and Donyell Malen helps hearth Villa’s push to be again within the Champions League subsequent season.
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Emery’s males have gained their final 5 league video games to sit down outdoors the highest 5 solely on aim distinction.
Man Metropolis’s new homegrown hero
Metropolis had been meandering in the direction of a 3rd consecutive away recreation with out scoring of their ultimate go to to Goodison Park till Nico O’Reilly popped up with one other important aim to assist beat Everton 2-0.
The 20-year-old is a pure midfielder however has pressured his approach into Guardiola’s beginning line-up in current weeks with a string of spectacular performances at left-back.
Manchester-born O’Reilly has netted his first two Premier League objectives in Metropolis’s final two video games together with three objectives and two assists within the FA Cup this season.
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“We’re so grateful as a result of he isn’t a left-back,” mentioned Guardiola. “He is an attacking midfielder however if you play as a left again, if the build-up isn’t fast, you’ll be able to arrive there (within the field).”
Mateo Kovacic added a second as Metropolis closed in on a fifteenth consecutive season within the Champions League.
Nonetheless, Metropolis — English champions within the final 4 seasons — nonetheless have little margin for error of their ultimate 5 video games.
Guardiola’s males get pleasure from only a one level cushion over Chelsea, Nottingham Forest and in-form Villa, who they host on Tuesday in an important showdown.
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