LONDON (AP) — Harry Kane scored his 23rd English Premier League goal to earn Tottenham a 2-1 win over top-four rival Brighton on Saturday in a match that saw both managers sent off after a touchline scuffle.
Tottenham’s Cristian Stellini and Brighton’s Roberto De Zerbi — both Italians — were dismissed from the dugouts and escorted down the tunnel by the time Kane ran onto a cutback from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and found the corner of the net with a fierce drive in the 79th minute.
Kane, England’s captain, has scored in six straight games for club and country, and is still in striking distance of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland in the race to be top scorer in the league.
Son Heung-min gave Tottenham the lead in the 10th minute with a curler into the top corner for his 100th league goal and Lewis Dunk equalized with a header from a corner in the 34th.
Kaoru Mitoma and Alexis Mac Allister had goals disallowed for Brighton for handball.
Tottenham stayed in fifth place, three points behind both third-placed Newcastle and fourth-placed Manchester United having played one game more.
Newcastle 2, Brentford 1
Also in London, Alexander Isak kept Newcastle’s Champions League charge on track with the winner in a 2-1 victory at Brentford.
The Sweden striker hit his eighth goal in 13 league appearances as the Magpies came from a goal down to make it five wins in a row and stay in third place.
A high-tempo match in west London also featured a collector’s item in the shape of a failure from the penalty spot by Ivan Toney. The England striker also slotted a spot kick and had a goal disallowed in an eventful first half.
Newcastle stayed in third place, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference and three points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham, which has played a game more than its two rivals.
Toney thought he fired Brentford ahead in the seventh minute after Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope clawed out a header from Pontus Jansson. Toney snaffled the rebound but a VAR check showed he was just offside when Jansson headed the ball.
The penalty saga began when Kevin Schade brought down a high ball superbly before racing past Dan Burn and into the area, where he was unceremoniously halted by Sven Botman.
But Toney’s effort was uncharacteristically weak and Pope saved low to his left to join Adam Davies of Barnsley in 2018 — when Toney was at Peterborough — in an exclusive club of goalkeepers to keep out a penalty from the striker.
Four-and-a-half years and 24 successful penalties later — including 22 out of 22 for Brentford — Toney’s run of successful spot kicks come to an end.
However, he is nothing if not confident about his ability from the spot, and normal service was resumed in first-half stoppage time after Isak caught Rico Henry.
Referee Chris Kavanagh was instructed by the VAR to check the pitchside monitor and, inevitably, he awarded another penalty.
Toney dispatched it to Pope’s left again but this time high enough to beat his dive.
Newcastle was poor in the first half but improved after the introduction of Callum Wilson and Anthony Gordon, and equalized in the 54th minute when Kieran Trippier found Joelinton inside the box.
Six minutes later, Wilson — unfortunate not to start after his double at West Ham midweek — squared for Isak to lash a superb effort from the edge of the box into the top corner.
Raya made a fine block to deny Isak a second before Wilson prodded the ball home from a corner, only for another VAR review to chalk it off for handball after the striker controlled the ball with the top of his arm.
Pope kept out Ethan Pinnock’s late header and Toney headed over in stoppage time as Brentford slipped to only a second home
West Ham 1, Fulham 0
Also in London, West Ham celebrated a first away win since August in the English Premier League thanks to a Fulham own goal on Saturday.
The Hammers were thrashed by Newcastle 5-1 midweek but recovered to win 1-0 at Craven Cottage in a low-quality affair settled by Harrison Reed’s unfortunate first-half moment.
Not since a victory at Aston Villa in their second away game had the travelling West Ham fans been able to celebrate three points — although history was on their side here, having won more away fixtures against Fulham than any other league team.
Those supporters, though, still lambasted manager David Moyes with chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing,” during the second half.
Victory lifted West Ham three points above the drop zone.
Fulham has lost four league games in a row as hopes of European qualification continue to drift.
Coach Marco Silva, watching from high up in Craven Cottage’s new Riverside Stand after being hit with a two-game ban following his red card at Manchester United, will be concerned about the slide especially with talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic yet to serve six games of his eight-match ban from the same encounter.
The only goal of a tame London derby came when Reed turned a low Jarrod Bowen cross into his own goal at the midway point of the first half.
Aston Villa 2, Notts Forest 0
In Birmingham, Aston Villa put on a show for its royal visitors in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest that lifted the team into sixth place in the English Premier League on Saturday.
Prince William, who is known to be a Villa fan, attended with his oldest child, Prince George, and saw Ollie Watkins continue his hot streak with a stoppage-time goal to seal victory.
It was Watkins’ ninth goal in his last 11 games, adding to Bertrand Traore’s strike early in the second half.
Villa has won six of its last seven matches and is in real contention for European qualification, with the Europa League firmly in the sights of manager Unai Emery — a serial winner of the competition with Sevilla and Villarreal.
Emery mustn’t have thought this was possible when he took over from Steven Gerrard in November. Villa is on course for their best finish since 2010.
For Forest, an eighth game without a win returned the team to the bottom three for the first time since January. Unless something drastic changes in the next few weeks, it looks almost certain to return to the Championship.
Whether that drastic change is the removal of Cooper remains to be seen. Although owner Evangelos Marinakis gave his manager public backing this week, his statement was pointed by saying he expected results and performances to “improve immediately.”
Although Forest was not outplayed at Villa Park, the team carried so little threat and, unsurprising for a team which has only five away goals, never looked like getting back in the game.
With Manchester United, Liverpool and Brighton to play in its next three fixtures, Forest’s chances of survival look bleak.
.acf-block-preview .br-related-links-wrapper {
display: grid;
grid-template-columns: repeat(2, 1fr);
gap: 20px;
}
.acf-block-preview .br-related-links-wrapper a {
pointer-events: none;
cursor: default;
text-decoration: none;
color: black;
}
Source link
#EPL #Roundup #Managers #SpursSeagulls #clash #Newcastle #win