Liverpool hit five against West Ham
\n MANCHESTER
\nManchester City shrugged off the absence of Erling Haaland to close to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a 1-0 win at Leeds on Saturday, while Liverpool beat West Ham 5-2 to climb into fifth.
\nHaaland was absent for the trip to the city of his birth due to a minor injury that Pep Guardiola described as \u201cnot a big problem\u201d.
\nWithout the Norwegian, City were far from their best but ground out a vital three points against a Leeds side that had lost just twice in their previous 16 games.
\nLeeds were left to rue not making the most of their early dominance as Dominic Calvert-Lewin skewed wide a glorious chance just three minutes in.
\nAntoine Semenyo instead proved to be the match-winner with his sixth goal in 11 games since joining City last month.
\n\u201cIt was a huge victory to still be there (in the race),\u201d said Guardiola, whose side and Arsenal are still involved in four competitions.
\n\u201cOne game at a time. Recover now and start the real season when there are many, many games and everyone\u2019s tired.\u201d
\nTempers flared at full-time as Leeds boss Daniel Farke was shown a red card for confronting referee Peter Bankes, while Guardiola was also furious at the officials.
\nThe pressure is now on Arsenal to respond when they host Chelsea in the pick of Sunday\u2019s action.
\nLiverpool\u2019s set-piece turnaround
\nLiverpool\u2019s new-found strength from set-pieces masked another unconvincing performance against struggling West Ham.
\nAll three first-half goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister came from corners, putting Arne Slot\u2019s men in a commanding position.
\nLiverpool have gone from the worst Premier League performers in terms of set-pieces at the end of 2025 to the best since January 1.
\n\u201cIn my opinion we have played better when we lost,\u201d said Slot. \u201cWe start scoring from set-pieces and things start looking brighter and better than when you don\u2019t.\u201d
\nCody Gakpo added another goal after the break before an Axel Disasi own goal capped off the win for Liverpool.
\nDefeat deals another blow to the Hammers\u2019 hopes of survival as they remain two points adrift of safety.
\nBut they hit back twice in the second half through Tomas Soucek and Valentin Castellanos and could have scored more at Anfield.
\nA place in the top five is almost certain to secure Champions League football next season thanks to the strong results of English sides in European competition this season.
\nLiverpool move three points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea.
\nBrentford edge Burnley in thriller
\nBurnley\u2019s slim chances of survival took another body blow in an agonising 4-3 defeat at home to Brentford.
\nThe Bees were cruising to victory and within two points of Chelsea when goals from Mikkel Damsgaard, Igor Thiago and Kevin Schade put them 3-0 up inside 34 minutes at Turf Moor.
\nMichael Kayode\u2019s own goal gave the Clarets hope before half-time and they levelled through Jaidon Anthony and Zian Flemming.
\nFlemming thought he had completed a remarkable comeback only for a VAR review to rule the goal out for offside.
\nInstead, it was Brentford who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when Damsgaard netted his second goal in stoppage time.
\nThere was still time for another VAR review to deny Burnley a point when Ashley Barnes was adjudged to have handled before scoring a 98th-minute equaliser.
\nEverton notched another excellent away win to maintain their hope of European football next season with a 3-2 victory at Newcastle.
\nThree times the Toffees led at St James\u2019 Park through Jarrad Branthwaite, Beto and Thierno Barry.
\nEverton have struggled to adapt to their new home at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, but only Arsenal have won more points on the road, with David Moyes\u2019 men climbing into eighth.
\nBournemouth stretched their unbeaten league run to eight games after coming from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland in the lunchtime kick-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool hit five against West Ham MANCHESTER Manchester City shrugged off the absence of Erling Haaland to close to within two points of Premier League leaders Arsenal with a 1-0 win at Leeds on Saturday, while Liverpool beat West Ham 5-2 to climb into fifth. Haaland was absent for the trip to the city of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-534230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n