London: Manchester United and Arsenal posted comfortable wins while title hopefuls Manchester City laboured past West ham United at the Etihad in the Premier League here, Wednesday.
United visited Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace and were put in front by Romelu Lukaku who scored his first goal in ten appearances in the 33rd minute much to the relief of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The Belgian then added another in the 52nd minute to give his side a healthy lead.
However, that was quickly cut short by Joel Ward’s diving header before Ashley Young reestablished the Mancunians’ two-goal cushion as they bagged all three points.
Meanwhile at the Emirates, Mesut Ozil made the most of a rare start under manager Unai Emery by starring in Arsenal’s stellar 5-1 routing of Bournemouth.
Ozil opened the scoring before Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Laurent Koscielny, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette all added to the tally to keep the Gunners’ hopes for a top four finish alive.
Premier League aspirants Manchester City hosted 10th placed West Ham United at the Etihad. A Sergio Aguero penalty in the 59th minute was all it took for City to keep breathing down the necks of Liverpool who lead the table by just one point.
West Ham’s Felipe Anderson brought down substitute Bernardo Silva inside the box giving Aguero the opportunity to take his league goal tally to 18.
AFP