IMAGES from the English Premier League matches played on Saturday.
Vibrant Villa crush Newcastle to close in on top 5
Aston Villa thumped top-five rivals Newcastle United 4-1 at Villa Park to keep themselves in the thick of the race for Champions League qualification on Saturday.
Five days after being knocked out of Europe's top club competition by Paris St Germain in a thriller, Villa returned to Premier League action in emphatic fashion with the recalled Ollie Watkins opening the scoring inside the first minute.
Fabian Schar equalised for third-placed Newcastle with a header before halftime but Villa blazed clear after the break with Ian Maatsen restoring their lead before a Dan Burn own goal and substitute Amadou Onana's superb finish sealed the points.
Victory lifted Villa three points above Chelsea into sixth place with 57 points from 33 games, level with Nottingham Forest who play at Tottenham Hotspur on Monday.
Newcastle have 59 points, one more than fourth-placed Manchester City, in what is turning into a fierce battle to qualify for next season's Champions League.
The top five in the Premier League will all qualify.
Newcastle had won five successive Premier League games and the League Cup final but were brought crashing back down to earth by a superb Villa side who could have scored far more.
Watkins was twice denied by the woodwork in the first half as the England forward produced a dazzling display, including a second-half assist for Maatsen, having been left out of the starting line-up in recent games.
"I think the manager's got a little bit of a headache now because I'm banging on his door saying why am I not playing," Watkins, who had was a substitute in both legs of Aston Villa's clash with PSG, told Sky Sports.
Unai Emery's Villa go to Manchester City on Tuesday when victory would send them into the top four.
Newcastle, again with manager Eddie Howe absent as he recovers from pneumonia, were rocked after 33 minutes when Youri Tielemans slid a pass to Watkins whose shot took a big deflection off Schar to wrong-foot goalkeeper Nick Pope.
Watkins thumped a left-footer against the post soon after and then saw a header rebound off the woodwork as Villa buzzed around a listless Newcastle.
The visitors did improve though and when Harvey Barnes sent over a cross, Schar arrived at the back post and his header went in off Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez.
Villa looked the more threatening after the break and took the lead when a surging Maatsen was played in by Watkins and he rifled a shot across Pope and in.
Emery sent on Jacob Ramsey and Onana with little under 20 minutes left and both made an immediate impact.
Ramsey's low cross was turned in by Burn and then Onana put the icing on the cake with a powerful finish from the edge of the penalty area after incessant Villa pressure.
While it was a setback for Newcastle, they are still well-placed to secure Champions League football in what has already been a memorable season for the club.
"We want to qualify for the Champions League. Today was a setback but we've got a full week to recover and analyse where we went wrong today," defender Kieran Trippier said.
City down Everton, close in on Champions League
Manchester City moved a step closer to Champions League football next season as Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic scored in the final five minutes to secure a 2-0 win over Everton in their Premier League clash at Goodison Park on Saturday.
City move up to fourth with 58 points from 33 matches, four points ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea and Aston Villa in seventh, but they have played a game more. The top five qualify for the Champions League next season.
O’Reilly stabbed the ball home from four metres after connecting with Matheus Nunes’s low cross before Kovacic drilled in the second goal from the edge of the box to make sure of the win.
It was hard work for City for 85 minutes as they battled to create clear-cut chances, while home defender James Tarkowski struck the post with a header from a corner in the first half for Everton, who remain 13th with 38 points from 33 games.
There will be relief for City manager Pep Guardiola as his side came up against the fired-up hosts in a hostile atmosphere in the third-last league game at the famous old ground before Everton move to a new stadium on the banks of the River Mersey.
"We had to work hard," City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan told the BBC. "This ground is always tough to come and play at with the way they approach the game.
"We had to be careful, maybe at the beginning we didn't want to risk it too much. We came out in the second half to perform and we have done that in a brilliant way. Definitely deserved to get the three points."
The home side had their moments and their manager David Moyes can take some positives out of the game but was left to rue a hamstring injury to Tarkowski that forced the defender off.
"I thought for 60 minutes we were okay, we played well and gave them a good game," Moyes said. "Tarky (Tarkowski) coming off changes a lot of things in the game.
"Their subs made a difference and ours didn't. They took control in the second half."
Everton came closest in the first half when Tarkowski struck the post with a header from a corner, before Jake O’Brien headed off the line to keep out Kevin De Bruyne’s goal-bound shot.
City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega then made a superb point-blank save to stop Jarrad Branthwaite’s header.
But the visitors tightened their grip on the game in the closing stages and once O’Reilly opened the scoring the fight went out of the home side.
Southampton snatch draw at West Ham with injury-time equaliser
West Ham United were held to a 1-1 draw by Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday after Lesley Ugochukwu scored an equaliser in added time for the already-relegated south-coast club.
With Southampton staring down the barrel of a 27th defeat of the season, Chelsea loanee Ugochukwu came to their rescue with a volley in the 92nd minute to move the bottom side to 11 points. West Ham are 16th with 36 points.
Southampton now have five games left to avoid being labelled the joint-worst team in Premier League history, a record that belongs to the 2007/08 Derby County side which finished with 11 points.
West Ham could have taken the lead in the fourth minute when striker Niclas Fuellkrug connected with Lucas Paqueta's cross at the far post but Saints keeper Aaron Ramsdale made the save.
But Southampton showed more spark and had better chances in the first half, especially when Kyle Walker-Peters saw his shot go agonisingly wide while Kamaldeen Sulemana hit the bar at the half-hour mark.
After the first period ended goalless, the home fans turned on West Ham as the team walked off to loud boos at the London Stadium and that clearly had an effect as they came out firing and took the lead less than two minutes after the restart.
A counter-attack which began in West Ham's box saw the team gallop up the other end where Fuellkrug found Jarrod Bowen, who dribbled into the box and fired the ball inside the far post.
It was Bowen's 10th goal in all competitions as he hit double figures for a fourth straight season.
Fuellkrug thought he had made it 2-0 in the 67th minute from a corner when he scored from close range but the referee blew the whistle for a foul on Ramsdale.
Southampton, who looked the better side for much of the contest, refused to give up and Ugochukwu volleyed home in a chaotic finish to give the travelling fans reason to cheer in a dispiriting season.
Brentford see off Brighton in thriller
Brentford picked up their first home win in nine games on Saturday in an eventful 4-2 victory against 10-man Brighton, aided by two goals and an assist from Bryan Mbeumo.
The loss dented Brighton's hopes of qualifying for European football next season and left them in 10th position in the Premier League on 48 points, now just two ahead of Brentford in 11th.
Mbeumo opened the scoring in the ninth minute before Danny Welbeck clawed a goal back for Brighton just before halftime.
Mbeumo netted again early in the second half -- his 18th league goal of the season -- before finding Yoane Wissa for Brentford's third in the 58th minute.
The Seagulls struck back via Kaoru Mitoma in the 81st minute despite having Joao Pedro sent off 20 minutes earlier. They looked intent on equalising but Brentford captain Christian Norgaard put the game beyond them with his side's fourth goal five minutes into extra time.
Brighton are now winless in five league games, making them one of a number of teams to stumble in the chase for European football in the late stages of the season.
They went behind early when Keane Lewis-Potter pushed forward and sliced open the opposing defence, finding Mbeumo who surged forward and curled the ball beyond Bart Verbruggen into the bottom left corner.
The first half looked set to end 1-0 before Brighton pinched one back. Yankuba Minteh made a nuisance of himself in Brentford’s area, pulling the ball back for Mats Wieffer to cross in to Welbeck who headed home.
Brentford came out after halftime with intensity and regained the lead in the 48th minute when Mbeumo picked up the ball in the right-hand side of the box and found the net via a heavy deflection. The goal put him equal with Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood in fourth place in the scorers’ table.
Ten minutes later, Mbeumo was once again hurtling towards the box and cut back to Wissa whose shot picked up another deflection on the way in for Brentford’s third.
The red card for Pedro -- for flicking his hand into defender Nathan Collins’s face in the 62nd minute -- looked as though it had left Brighton with too much to do.
Yet they found some energy, helped by the introduction of Mitoma, who made it 3-2 with a smart finish after being played in by Jack Hinshelwood.
Brighton had their opposition on the back foot but ultimately Brentford were able to use the extra man to their advantage, sending the fans home happy after Norgaard headed in from a Mathias Jensen free kick.
Frustrated Bournemouth held goalless at 10-man Palace
Bournemouth had to settle for a 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace despite the hosts being reduced to 10 men late in the first half after defender Chris Richards was sent off for a second yellow card.
The first period at Selhurst Park was a cagey affair with the most notable moment arriving in stoppage time when Richards was dismissed after being adjudged to have pulled back forward Justin Kluivert by referee Sam Barrott, resulting in his second caution.
Despite their man advantage for the whole second half, Bournemouth failed to capitalise and manager Andoni Iraola will be very disappointed that his team could not find a winner as they chase a spot in European football next season.
Bournemouth remain in eighth place on 49 points, their highest ever tally in a Premier League season, with five games still to play. Palace stay 12th on 44 points from 33 games.
Richards had earlier been booked for a foul on Dango Ouattara in a game littered with yellow cards, with referee Barrott dishing out nine in total.
In a game with few chances, the best fell in the first half to Bournemouth centre back Dean Huijsen when a well-worked short corner ended up at his feet after a scuffed shot from Antoine Semenyo, but the Spaniard failed to turn it into the goal.
Both teams made changes at the break, Palace taking off Eberechi Eze for Jefferson Lerma, while Iraola substituted Alex Scott for Lewis Cook, the midfielder perhaps lucky not to receive a second yellow card himself for a foul on Ismaila Sarr.
Palace came into the game having shipped 10 goals in their last two games in heavy defeats to Champions League-chasing Manchester City and Newcastle, but their defence looked solid despite having a man fewer for half of the game.
The London club restricted Bournemouth to half-chances, giving them a boost before an FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa at Wembley next Saturday.
Glasner made more changes in the second half, removing striker Jean-Philippe Mateta and midfielder Adam Wharton with 15 minutes to go, perhaps with one eye already on next week's tie.
A win next week would take the London club one step closer to winning a major trophy for the first time in their history and a place in European competition next season.
Four minutes of injury time gave Iraola's men hope of finding a winner but a wayward, long-range effort from Semenyo was all they could muster as Palace held on comfortably to take a well-earned point.
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