London: Manchester City kept up the pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool with a 4-1 win at home to Southampton in Saturday’s early kick off match. Victory saw City close to within a point of Liverpool with a game in hand and leapfrog Chelsea into second place. Everton and Arsenal, fifth and fourth respectively before the weekend clash at Goodison Park on Sunday.
The opening four goals at Eastlands all came in the first half with City’s Yaya Toure and Saints’ Rickie Lambert both scoring from the penalty spot before Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko scored in stoppage time to make it 3-1 to Manuel Pellegrini’s men.
However, controversy surrounded the goal from Nasri that made it 2-1 with David Silva, who played in the French midfielder, offside when he received the ball only for referee Chris Foy and his linesmen to let play continue. City substitute Stevan Jovetic completed the scoring nine minutes from time.
MAN U MAUL MAGPIES:
Juan Mata scored twice as Manchester United moved above Tottenham, who face relegation threatened Sunderland on Monday, and into sixth place with a 4-0 win away to Newcastle. Fresh from their morale boosting 1-1 Champions League draw at home to title holders Bayern Munich on Tuesday, David Moyes’s side took the lead at St James’ Park courtesy of Mata’s superb 39th minute free kick that curled into the top corner.
And the Spain midfielder doubled United’s lead five minutes after half time when, after good work by Japan’s Shinji Kagawa and Mexico’s Javier Hernandez, he slotted home from close range. Hernandez then made it 3-0 in the 65th minute after being played in by Kagawa and substitute Adnan Januzaj completed the scoring in the final minute of normal time.
“Mata was terrific and so were Shinji Kagawa and Darren Fletcher,” said United manager Moyes. The Scot, who made eight changes from midweek, added: “We’ve left a few players at home and not played a few players. We are hoping they will be fit for Wednesday night’s game at Bayern Munich.”
Fulham moved off the bottom of the table with a 2-1 win away to Aston Villa. The Cottagers remained in the relegation zone but were now just five points shy of safety with five games left. Fulham took the lead courtesy of Kieran Richardson’s 22 yard shot in the 61st minute at Villa Park. But Birmingham side Villa equalised nine minutes later though striker Grant Holt’s header
