Villa beat Newcastle to stay in title hunt, Chelsea climb to top four

Aston Villa closed to within four points of the Premier League summit with an impressive 2-0 win at Newcastle, while Chelsea climbed into the top four on Sunday.

Leaders Arsenal can stretch their advantage over Villa and Manchester City back to seven points when they host Manchester United later.

But Villa bounced back from a shock 1-0 defeat at home to Everton last weekend to remain on the fringes of the title race.

Emi Buendia put Unai Emery’s men on course for their first win at St. James’ Park since 2005 with a brilliant strike from outside the box on 19 minutes.

Newcastle were shorn of inspiration without injured captain Bruno Guimaraes in a damaging defeat for their chances of Champions League qualification.

Ollie Watkins set the seal on Villa’s victory when the England international headed in Lucas Digne’s cross two minutes from time.

Newcastle slip to ninth but still only three points outside the top five, which will likely be enough for a place in the Champions League.

Even if Villa fall short on a first league title since 1981, they are well on course for a return to Europe’s elite competition with an 11-point advantage over sixth-placed Manchester United.

Chelsea piled more pain on Crystal Palace with a 3-1 win at Selhurst Park.

Oliver Glasner promised to do his best to turn around a miserable run for the Eagles despite announcing he will leave the club when his contract expires at the end of the season.

The Austrian was furious at the manner club captain Marc Guehi was allowed to depart for Manchester City earlier this week and could also lose star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta before the transfer window closes.

Mateta wasted Palace’s best chance of a bright opening when he fired straight at Robert Sanchez.

But the home side never recovered after a wayward backpass from Jaydee Canvot freed Estevao to sprint clear and fire in Chelsea’s opener on 34 minutes.

The Brazilian then set up compatriot Joao Pedro to gallop in behind the Palace defence and double the Blues’ advantage just after half-time.

Enzo Fernandez’s penalty rounded off a fourth win in five games for Liam Rosenior since he took charge at Stamford Bridge.

Palace’s misery was compounded when England international Adam Wharton was sent off for two bookable offences. After 11 games without a win, the Eagles are now looking over their shoulder, just eight points above the relegation zone.

Nottingham Forest gave their survival chances a huge boost by inflicting just a second home defeat of the season on Brentford.

West Ham’s victory over Sunderland on Saturday piled the pressure on Sean Dyche’s men.

But they responded to move five points clear of the drop zone with a 2-0 win in west London thanks to goals from Igor Jesus and Taiwo Awoniyi.

Slot blames fatigue as Liverpool fail again: Liverpool boss Arne Slot blamed tiredness for his side’s concession of a 95th-minute goal away to Bournemouth that saw them slump to a 3-2 Premier league defeat after coming back from two goals down on Saturday.

The reigning champions have been a shadow of last ⁠year’s side so far, losing seven league games and struggling to break down sides that they brushed aside during their imperious march to the 2024/25 title.

“For the last five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 games, we mainly have to play with the same players, the players we have available and then sometimes a few of them could be, in the end of the game, a bit tired,” Slot said in post-match interviews with a variety of British broadcasters.

“I think that’s what you could see today in the end as well.”

Bournemouth raced out to a 2-0 lead before being pegged back to 2-2 in the 80th minute through Dominik Szoboszlai’s equaliser, and the remainder of the game was a wide-open, end-to-end affair.

“Both teams were trying to score a goal, they had better opportunities than us in the last 10 minutes and then in the end there is a long throw in which led to a goal,” Slot said before criticising officials for not playing more added time.

“But in the end, that didn’t matter because they scored, although maybe we could have had them two or three (more) minutes but this game should not have had (only) four minutes of extra time.”

Agencies