Manchester United restored the winning tone in the English Premier League after two consecutive defeats, and beat Wolverhampton 2-0 today, Saturday, in the 36th stage of the competition, to tighten the screws on Newcastle, who drew 2-2 with its host Leeds United in another match today at the same stage.
In other matches today at the same stage, Aston Villa beat Tottenham 2-1, Crystal Palace beat Bournemouth 2-0, Fulham beat Southampton 2-0, and Chelsea drew with Nottingham Forest 2-2.
At the “Old Trafford” stadium, Manchester United snatched a difficult victory over Wolverhampton with two clean goals scored by Frenchman Anthony Martial in the 32nd minute and substitute Alejandro Garnacho in the fourth minute of stoppage time for the match, to raise his score to 66 points in fourth place, with a goal difference only behind Newcastle.
The victory is the first for Manchester United after two consecutive defeats in the competition, to return to tightening the screws on Newcastle in their race for third place, while Wolverhampton’s balance was frozen at 40 points.
Leeds United denied its guest, Newcastle, from regaining victories in the English Premier League, and snatched a valuable 2-2 draw with it.
Newcastle failed to win the second match in a row, but raised its tally to 66 points in third place.
Leeds scored through Luke Eiling in the seventh minute, and his colleague Patrick Bamford missed a penalty kick in the 28th minute.
Newcastle responded with two penalty goals scored by Callum Wilson in the 31st and 69th minutes, while Rasmus Christensen scored the equalizer for Leeds in the 79th minute, raising the team’s score to 31 points and advancing to eighteenth place in the competition table.
Christensen’s shot, which hit the head of Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier, saved the Leeds team from defeat, but this tie was not enough to get the team out of the relegation zone.
The draw is only the second for Leeds against 5 defeats in the last 7 matches the team played in the tournament.
Leeds made a strong start in the match in search of the early goal, which Sam Allerdis, the coach of the team, spoke about, and the team succeeded in scoring it already in the seventh minute.
The goal came after a cunning pass from Jack Harrison to Bamford, who crossed it, to be met by Rodrigo with a header, and Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope blocked it, but Eiling followed it up with a shot into the goal.
Bamford missed the penalty kick, which Bob saved, to miss a golden opportunity for Leeds to consolidate its lead, and the team paid dearly with two penalties, which were scored by Wilson, before Christensen scored the equalizing goal for Leeds with a shot from 25 yards.
With the players’ nerves tense at the end of the match, Junior Firpo, the Leeds player, was sent off for receiving a second warning in the match, after a violent interference with Anthony Gordon, the Newcastle player.
Aston Villa returned its guest, Tottenham, to the spiral of negative results, by defeating it 2-1 today, raising its score to 57 points and advancing to sixth place, with a difference in goals scored only behind Tottenham.
Aston Villa ended the first half in his favor with a clean goal scored by Jacob Ramsey in the eighth minute, and the team consolidated its victory with a goal in the second half scored by Douglas Luiz in the 72nd minute, before Harry Kane scored the only goal for Tottenham from a penalty kick in the last minute of the match.
And at the Stamford Bridge stadium in the capital, London, Chelsea returned to the series of wasting points, drawing 2/2 with Nottingham Forest, to raise its score to 43 points, compared to 34 points for Nottingham Forest.
Raheem Sterling scored Chelsea’s goals in the 51st and 58th minutes, and Tayo Onyi scored Nottingham’s goals in the 13th and 62nd minutes.
