The football race of the Champions League is the main point of interest during the Premier League match, and the Nettingham Forest and Aston Villa challenges experienced mixed fortunes on Saturday.
Manchester City began the day outside the first five, with an end of the fifth place good enough for a place at the upper European football table next season, but moved to him with style hitting Crystal Palace 5-2.
City had fallen 2-0 through the goals of Eberrechi Eze and Chris Richards, however, after Eze had a third discarded for offside, Kevin de Bruyne orchestrated a good change.
Bruyne, who will leave the city at the end of the season, reduced the deficit with a 33 -minute free kick and then damping a header to Omar Marmush level three minutes later. The Belgian accelerated to Mateo Kovacic to put it 3-2 two minutes after the restart, and the goals of James Mcatee and Nico O’Rilly made sure of the points.
That result saw City move on Newcastle United and Chelsea, who play on Sunday, and accumulated pressure on the forest in third place.
The response of the men of Nuno Espírito Santo was not the one he wanted.
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Everton
Forest has been the surprise package of the Premier League this season, but suffered a setback with the defeat in Villa last week and were far from being the best possible in the city.
Everton, not mathematically safe, but is very sure of survival after a resurgence under David Moyes, dominated the contest.
And finally they obtained their reward in the 94th minute when Abdoulaye Doucoure placed at home the winner of the dismissal of Dwight McNeil.
Forest’s second successive defeat was magnified by the events on the southern coast.
Southampton 0-3 Aston Villa
Aaron Ramsdale saved two Penalizations of Marco Asensio, but could not prevent Villa from increasing his aspirations to finish among the top five with three goals in the second half.
Ramsdale denied Asensio a first time in the 69th minute after Jan Bednarek had committed a foul to Ollie Watkins.
Watkins shot at the bar to give him the leader four minutes later, with his advantage and then duplicate by Donyell Malen.
Asensio could not atone for his kick in the previous point when he saw another that Ramsdale kept out in the 94th minute, but John McGinn threw the rebound home to limit a comfortable victory over the saints already relegated.
The victory moves Villa to the fifth, just three points from the forest. They and Newcastle will jump to them and City if they beat Ipswich Town and Manchester United, respectively.
Brighton and Hove Albion 2-2 Leicester City
Brighton’s hopes of playing European football in 2025-26 suffered a blow, since they could not beat Leicester of the second background despite a couple of penalties by Joao Pedro.
Joao Pedro became 12 yards in the 31st minute and again in the 55th minute, those goals reached both sides of the 38 -minute equalizer of Stephy Mavididi.
Mavididi’s goal scored Leicester first in the Premier League since his 2-1 victory at Tottenham on January 26.
And the foxes found at the time they needed to claim a rare point in what appears to be a useless battle against the fall, the diving header of Carlos Okoli won a part of the loot.
Brighton is ninth, leveling at 48 points with Fulham in Eighth after having played one more game. Eighth will probably be enough in the league of the Conference for next season with English teams that are still in the three European competitions this season and in the city, forests and villas in the semifinals of the FA Cup.
