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 thrashed West Ham 5-2 to climb into fifth.
Haaland was absent for the trip to the city of his birth due to a minor injury that manager Pep Guardiola described as “not a big problem”.
Without 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.
Leeds 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.
Antoine Semenyo instead proved to be the match-winner with his sixth goal in 11 games since joining City last month.
Tempers 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.
The pressure is now on Arsenal to respond when they host Chelsea in the pick of Sunday’s action.
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Liverpool’s new-found strength from set-pieces masked another unconvincing performance against struggling West Ham.
All three first-half goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, and Alexis Mac Allister came from dead balls, putting Arne Slot’s men in a commanding position.
Dutch duo Cody Gakpo and Jeremie Frimpong added more goals after the break.
Liverpool move three points clear of sixth-placed Chelsea.
Burnley’s slim chances of survival took another body blow in an agonising 4-3 defeat at home to Brentford, while Everton notched another excellent away win to maintain their hope of European football next season with a 3-2 victory at Newcastle.
Bournemouth also stretched their unbeaten league run to eight games after coming from behind to rescue a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland.
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