LONDON, May 20: Liverpool will head into the final round of Premier League matches with its Champions League destiny in its own hands after a 3-0 victory over Burnley that lifted Jurgen Klopp’s team back into the top four on Wednesday.
Liverpool moved ahead of Leicester on goal difference. And with a superior goal difference of four, the Reds know if they match the Foxes’ result against Tottenham in their final home match of the season against Crystal Palace, they will have pulled off an impressive comeback from two months ago when, the Champions League looked beyond them.
Liverpool was indebted to Roberto Firmino’s strike late in the first half, back-up central defender Nat Phillips’ first senior goal early in the second, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s first goal of the season to put a place among Europe’s elite back on the table.
Tottenham’s players were jeered by their own returning fans during and after a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa in the Premier League on Wednesday, which could prove to be Harry Kane’s final home match for the club.
Villa recovered from conceding an eighth-minute goal by Steven Bergwijn to score twice before halftime, with Tottenham left back Sergio Reguilon slicing in a comical own-goal and then twice failing to clear to allow Ollie Watkins to run through and finish.
Up to 10,000 Tottenham fans were allowed back into the stadium for the first time following the easing of pandemic restrictions by the British government, and they made their feelings known about the team’s performance — especially in the first half.
A win would have virtually secured a spot in one of the minor European competitions for Tottenham, which started the day in sixth place, but that will now be determined on the final day of the season when the team plays away to Leicester.
Villa is set to finish in 11th place, a season after almost getting relegated, and looked a different proposition with captain Jack Grealish back in the starting lineup after a three-month injury layoff. He had played in Villa’s last two games, but only as a second-half substitute.
Gabriel Martinelli and Nicolas Pepe scored in second-half stoppage time to give Arsenal a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Wednesday, keeping alive the team’s outside chances of qualifying for European competition next season.
Martinelli, a substitute, bundled in from close range in the first minute of added-on time before Pepe scored his second of the match to clinch a victory that moved Arsenal into ninth place.
Mikel Arteta’s team is in the fight to finish in the qualifying spots for the lower-tier European competitions – the Europa League and the Europa Conference League – heading into the final round on Sunday.
Christian Benteke’s diving header at a free kick in the 62nd minute canceled out a well-worked team goal finished by Pepe in the 35th at Selhurst Park.
It was Roy Hodgson’s final home in charge of Palace. The former England coach said this week he’d be leaving at the end of the season having been in charge since September 2017.
Midfielder Joe Willock became the youngest player to score in six successive Premier League games as he gave Newcastle a 1-0 win over last-place Sheffield United on Wednesday.
Willock headed home a cross from Jacob Murphy just before halftime against already-relegated United. The 21-year-old midfielder is on loan from Arsenal but the fans who were allowed into St. James’ Park for the first time this season chanted for him to make the move permanent.
United beat Newcastle in January for their first league victory of the season — at the 18th attempt — but only came close to an equalizer when David McGoldrick clipped the bar with a cheeky 77th-minute attempt which sent goalkeeper Martin Dubravka back-pedaling towards his line.
Newcastle climbed to 15th with 42 points, while Sheffield remained on 20 points.
West Ham stayed on course for a Europa League spot with a 3-1 win over already relegated West Bromwich Albion, whose manager Sam Allardyce announced after Wednesday’s game that he would step down.
Allardyce said he turned down an offer from the club to remain in charge of the club for their return to the Championship. Allardyce was hired in December with the club in 19th place, but couldn’t avoid having his team relegated from the Premier League for the first tim in his managerial career.
David Moyes’ West Ham, meanwhile, goes into the final game of the season against Southampton knowing a point will confirm a Europa League spot after coming from behind at The Hawthorns. West Brom took the lead after West Ham’s Declan Rice missed a third-minute penalty and Tomas Soucek scored an own goal.
Soucek leveled before the break, with Angelo Ogbonna and Michail Antonio scoring late to secure the win.
West Ham is in sixth place, three points ahead of Tottenham and Everton, following a remarkable turnaround after they finished 16th and survived by five points last season.
Everton beat Wolverhampton 1-0 in the Premier League on Wednesday to end a five-game winless run at home and keep its slim hopes of European qualification alive. Richarlison’s 48th-minute header proved the winner and gave 6,500 returning fans something to cheer about at Goodison Park.
Coupled with Tottenham’s home loss to Aston Villa, the win keeps Everton in the mix for Europa League qualification, although a far inferior goal difference and a final-day trip to Manchester City still leaves Carlo Ancelotti’s team as the outsider.
Richarlison made the breakthrough at a corner, rising above Willy Boly to head in Gylfi Sigurdsson’s out-swinging delivery.
Everton’s best chances for a second came through Sigurdsson, who twice went close from the edge of the area, bending one shot agonizingly wide from the edge of the area before another was deflected wide. (AP)
