Premier League Round-up: City into third as Arsenal close on top-four

Manchester City moved into third place in the Premier League after a 2-1 win over Leicester City at The Etihad.

Pep Guardiola’s have still not sealed a top-four spot which will give them a place in the Champions League, but they are firm favourites to finish third.

David Silva opened the scoring for City on the half-hour converting from a Leroy Sane and the German was again involved in the second as he was brought down in the box just over five-minutes later.

With Sergio Aguero on the bench, Gabriel Jesus stepped up to convert.

Leicester did battle back and pulled a goal back before half-time thanks to a spectacular effort from Shinji Okazaki but they could not find an equaliser.

City are now 1/66 to secure a top-four finish and clearly the bookmakers feel they have done enough.

Arsenal moved within a point of fourth-placed Liverpool with a 4-1 victory at Stoke City.

The Gunners went ahead as Hector Bellerin picked out Olivier Giroud for a tap-in before Alexis Sanchez combined with Mesut Ozil, who coolly tucked home in the second period.

Stoke controversially restored hope as Peter Crouch converted Marko Arnautovic’s cross with his hand, but Sanchez drilled in a low finish and Giroud slid in a fourth for the away side.

Both Arsenal and Liverpool have two games remaining and are level on goal difference with the Gunners ahead by one on goals scored.

Elsewhere saw an ugly afternoon unfold in the North East as Sunderland and Middlesbrough both lost at home and their remaining fans let their feelings be known in no uncertain terms.

Sunderland reminded us that there is certainly more to life than football as Jermain Defoe led the teams out with cancer fighting Bradley Lowery but they found themselves trailing after nine minutes when Llorente headed home. Kyle Naughton doubled the lead in first half injury time to lift the Swans four points clear of Hull City in 18th who now need a win or draw at Crystal Palace to have a chance of avoiding relegation.

Middlesbrough fans endured another awful afternoon as they went 0-2 down to Southampton with goals from Rodriguez and Redmond before Brad Guzan needlessly brought down Shane Long and had to listen to home fans chanting for his dismissal although Long crashed the resulting penalty against the bar.

Patrick Bamford scored his first goal for two years when he headed home from Viktor Fischer’s corner with 17 minutes to go but this was as good as it got for the Teessiders.

Burnley thought they had secured a point seven minutes from time when Sam Vokes equalised Junior Stanislas’ first half goal but Josh King capped an impressive season with his 16th league goal of the season to cement Bournemouth’s highest ever position in their history.

 

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