With victories over Leicester City and Bournemouth, Arsenal and Manchester City continued to battle for the Premier League title.
On Saturday, Arsenal and Manchester City defeated Leicester City and Bournemouth, respectively. Meanwhile, Leeds United moved out of the relegation zone at the bottom.
Arsenal took a brief five-point lead with a 1-0 victory over Leicester City thanks to Gabriel Martinelli.
However, City responded with a 4-1 victory over struggling Bournemouth thanks to a club-record 27th Premier League goal.
The crucial 1-0 victory over Southampton, scored by Junior Firpo, gave new Leeds manager Javi Gracia his first win, snapping a 10-game losing streak and propelling the club to 17th place.
Danny Ings scored his first goal for West Ham United, and the hosts scored four times in the second half to hammer Nottingham Forest, another struggling team, 4-0 at the London Stadium.
However, Everton fell back into the bottom three after losing 2-0 to Aston Villa at home.
As they labored to a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace, Liverpool struggled to overcome their midweek Champions League defeat to Real Madrid at Anfield.
As a result, they moved up one spot in the table to seventh.
Arteta’s Faith Arsenal has come back from their home loss to champions City with victories over Villa and Leicester.
Leandro Trossard’s first-half goal was disallowed by video assistant refereeing (VAR), but Brazilian Martinelli scored in the 46th minute thanks to the Belgian’s pass.
Regarding his team’s response, manager Mikel Arteta stated, “I had full faith the players could do it.”
City has 55 points from 25 games, while Arsenal, aiming for their first title since 2004, has 57 points from 24 games.
After defeating Arsenal, City lost steam with midweek Champions League draws against Nottingham Forest and RB Leipzig.
However, they scored three times in the first half against Bournemouth, returning to their brutal best.
After 15 minutes, Julian Alvarez scored a rebound after Haaland’s deflected shot bounced off the bar.
The Norwegian then scored his 27th league goal with a relatively straightforward finish just before the halftime break to surpass Sergio Aguero’s score from 2014-15 and become City’s record scorer in a Premier League season.
With a rasping finish, Phil Foden capitalized on an errant pass to make it 3-0 just before halftime and effectively secured the victory.
After the break, Chris Mepham scored an own goal to make it 4-0, and Jefferson Lerma scored with a volley to give the hosts, who finished the day in the bottom three, a late consolation.
RELEGATION BATTLE Clubs are shifting positions on a weekly basis, making this season’s relegation battle especially intense.
Since Nov. 5, Leeds had not won a league game, but Gracia, a former Watford manager, made an immediate impression.
In the 77th minute, Firpo scored by squeezing a modest effort past goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu in front of the raucous Elland Road crowd.
The home match between West Ham and Forest appeared to be heading toward a goalless draw when Ings, a January signing from Aston Villa, struck a cross from Jarrod Bowen past Forest goalkeeper Keylor Navas in the 70th minute.
After only three minutes, Ings scored his second goal from a pass from Said Benrahma. Before that, substitute Michail Antonio and Declan Rice made it 3-0.
Ollie Watkins and Emiliano Buendia scored for Villa, sapping Everton’s chances of staying up.
After John McGinn was thrown off by Idrissa Gueye just before the hour mark, Watkins converted a penalty to make the score 1-1, and Buendia added to Everton’s misery in the dying minutes.
With 18 points from 24 games, Southampton is last, followed by Bournemouth and Everton, who both have 21 points. With 23 points, West Ham moved up to 16th place, while Leeds has 22.