EPL Week 27 Review: Spurs and City close the gap on Chelsea

A full round-up of Week 27 of the English Premier League including Spurs coming out on top in an exciting encounter with Everton, Arsenal falling out of the top four for the first time this year, and Middlesbrough dropping into the bottom three after defeat at Stoke.

With Chelsea not playing until Monday night, Spurs closed the gap to seven points thanks to another couple of goals from Harry Kane. The England marksman scored one either side of half-time to cement his position as the Premier League’s top marksman with 19 goals. Kane has now scored 14 times in 12 league and cup games since the beginning of the year. It’s hard to believe he is only 23-years of age.

The man sitting second in those Premier League scoring charts is Romelu Lukaku, and it was the Belgian who gave Everton hope of a fightback when he scored his 18th Premier League goal with the clock running out of space to run. Lukaku is now Everton’s top Premier League scorer of all time with 61 goals.

But Lukaku’s strike didn’t give Everton the impetus they needed to take a draw from Fortress White Hart Lane. Instead, Dele Alli found space in the box to score off a Harry Winks free kick in injury time, and despite a late consolation goal from Enner Valencia Spurs held on to win their ninth consecutive home game.

Man City remain the second favourites to win the league after beating Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Sergio Aguero continued his hot run of form since returning to the starting eleven with his fifth goal in three games just before the break. Leroy Sane finished things off with 30-minutes remaining.

City is now eight points behind Chelsea, with a game in hand, so if Chelsea loses to West Ham on Monday night, and City win their game in hand, things start to get a little interesting.

Arsenal Drop Out of Top Four; United Stutter Against Bournemouth

Arsenal dropped out of the top four for the first time since the turn of the year after an abject display against a resurgent Liverpool side. Liverpool meant business from the first whistle, and the Brazilian Firmino put them ahead within ten minutes after finishing off a Sadio Mane miss hit shot, and they were 2-0 up just before half time after Mane scored his 12th goal of the season after some good work by James Milner rampaging down the right.

Arsene Wenger confused everyone by leaving Alexis Sanchez on the bench. The Chilean has been involved in 26 of Arsenal’s goals this season, and when he came on, he made an immediate impact setting up Danny Welbeck to score on his first start in 10-months.

Things might have been different had Emre Can been rightly sent off for two bookable offences, but he wasn’t, and the points went Liverpool’s way after the impressive Adam Lallana sent Divock Origi through on goal and he squared to Georgio Wijnaldum to finish things off.

Liverpool is now unbeaten in nine matches against Top 6 sides, and move into a Champions League spot.

Arsenal could have plummeted further down the table had Man Utd beat 10-man Bournemouth at home. Marcos Rojo scored his first goal of the season when he poked home an Antonio Valencia cross in the first half – his first goal in 54 games for the Red Devils. But Bournemouth equalised just before half-time when Josh King converted from the penalty spot after an idiotic challenge on Marc Pugh by Phil Jones.

The second half was all about Zlatan Ibrahimovic. So often the United hero this season, it was his turn to play the victim. First, the ref should have sent him for an early shower when he clearly elbowed Tyrone Mings in the face and fell theatrically to the floor moments later when pushed by Andrew Surman. The big Swede escaped punishment, but the ref gave Surman a red card for his second bookable offence.

And then to pour more salt on the slug, Ibrahimovic had the chance to seal the win from the penalty spot after Adam Smith handled in the box. But Artur Boric is a penalty saving machine having saved four from seven, and he saved again to give Bournemouth a much-needed point.

“We can only blame ourselves,” Jose Mourinho told the press after the game.

Relegation News

Joining Sunderland in the bottom three this weekend is Hull and Middlesbrough. Hull has only won one away game all season after being on the end of a thrashing against Leicester. The Champions has now won two games on the bounce, scoring six goals, since Claudio Ranieri’s departure. Next up, Sevilla in the Champions League, and what a time to play them.

It doesn’t matter if Middlesbrough is home or away, they still can’t win. It looks like a rapid return to the Championship is likely after losing by two goals to nil at Stoke. Boro has only won four games all season.

Crystal Palace and Swansea put some daylight between themselves and the bottom three with victories over West Brom and Burnley respectively: Andros Townsend and Wilfried Zaha scoring for Palace. Swansea’s Fernando Llorente scored a last minute winner in a 3-2 win over Burnley as he secured his fourth brace of the season. Burnley has only picked up two points on the road all season.

Here are the rest of the weekend’s results.

Week 27 Results

Man Utd 1 v 1 Bournemouth
Swansea 3 v 2 Burnley
Leicester 3 v 1 Hull
West Brom 0 v 2 Crystal Palace
Watford 3 v 4 Southampton
Stoke 2 v 0 Middlesbrough
Liverpool 3 v 1 Arsenal
Spurs 3 v 2 Everton
Sunderland 0 v 2 Man City

To Be Played Mon, 5 March

West Ham v Chelsea

Premier League Table

1. Chelsea – 63
2. Spurs – 56
3. Man City – 55
4. Liverpool 52
5. Arsenal – 50
6. Man Utd – 49
7. Everton – 44
8. West Brom – 40
9. Stoke – 35
10. Southampton 33
11. West Ham – 33
12. Burnley – 31
13. Watford – 31
14. Bournemouth – 27
15. Leicester – 27
16. Swansea – 27
17. Crystal Palace – 25
18. Middlesbrough – 22
19. Hull – 21
20. Sunderland – 19