Without the injured Erling Haaland, Manchester City relied on the latest goal from recently signed forward Antoine Semenyo to secure a win that kept the pressure on Arsenal in the Premier League title race on Saturday.
Semenyo did his best Haaland impression by meeting a low cross with a close-range finish for the winner in first-half stoppage time as City held firm to beat Leeds 1-0 and trim the gap to Arsenal to two points.
It was Semenyo’s sixth goal in 11 games since joining from Bournemouth in January.
“We just need to control what we can control,” Semenyo said, “win our games and see what happens.”
Arsenal hosts Chelsea on Sunday. Both Arsenal and City have 10 games left and look to be the only contenders for the title.
Haaland was unavailable for the trip to Leeds — his city of birth — after sustaining what City manager Pep Guardiola described as a “little injury” in training on Thursday. It was the first league match the Norway striker has missed all season.
City rode its luck at Elland Road, with Leeds squandering two clear-cut chances in the first half and piling on the pressure late in the game.
Still, City racked up a fourth straight league win and a sixth in a row in all competitions.
Salah drought continues
Mohamed Salah’s run of league games without scoring is up to 10.
Fortunately for the Egypt star, his Liverpool teammates had no problem finding the net in a 5-2 thrashing of West Ham that continued the defending champion’s midseason recovery.
Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo all scored for Liverpool, which also forced an own-goal as the team racked up more than four goals in a league game for the first time this season.
Liverpool has won four games in a row in all competitions and six in its last seven — the only blip being the home loss to City. Arne Slot’s side moved level on points with fourth-placed Manchester United, which plays on Sunday at home to Crystal Palace.
Salah’s last league goal for Liverpool was way back on Nov. 1 against Aston Villa. It’s his longest scoring drought in the competition since joining from Roma in 2017.
Late drama as Brentford wins seven-goal thriller
Brentford squandered a three-goal lead before scoring a stoppage-time winner to beat relegation-threatened Burnley 4-3.
And that was only half the drama.
After pulling it back from 3-0 down to 3-3, Burnley striker Zian Flemming had a goal ruled out for the most marginal of offsides.
There was a cruel sting in the tail for the hosts, though, as Brentford playmaker Mikkel Damsgaard tucked the ball into the bottom corner in the third minute of added-on time.
Still, Burnley thought it earned a point when, with the clock ticking toward 100 minutes, veteran striker Ashley Barnes found the net — only for VAR to intervene again, with the goal ruled out for handball after a wait of more than five minutes.
Pickford ‘wonder save’
In another goalfest, Everton won at Newcastle 3-2 — but only after England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford produced a stunning save to keep out Sandro Tonali’s long-range volley in stoppage time.
Pickford somehow turned the Italy international’s shot onto the crossbar, leading Everton manager David Moyes to say: “The biggest credit I could give the save would be to say that Tonali’s volley was textbook. Probably if he got it he couldn’t do any better if he tried again. It was so good, technique, on target.
“It took a wonder save to make it happen.”
Newcastle recovered from Jarrad Branthwaite’s early header to equalize through Jacob Ramsey, but almost instantly conceded again when goalkeeper Nick Pope spilled a shot and Beto pounced to score.
Jacob Murphy volleyed past Pickford to make it 2-2 but Newcastle conceded once again within seconds when Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall surged into the box and crossed for substitute Thierno Barry to bundle the ball across the line.
Also, Bournemouth fought back to draw with Sunderland 1-1 thanks to Brazilian striker Evanilson, stretching its unbeaten run to eight games.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
