Sports Desk, May 3 (EFE).- Manchester City beat West Ham United 3-0 Wednesday to take back first place in the Premier League from Arsenal on a day that saw Erling Haaland break yet another scoring record.
The defending champions went a point ahead of Arsenal and they have a game in hand on the Gunners. West Ham remain 15th, just 4 points above the drop zone with four games left.
Despite missing four starters to injury and illness, the visitors gave a good account of themselves in the first half at the Etihad. The Hammers limited City’s chances and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski rose to the occasion to deny Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish and the first half ended 0-0.
The breakthrough came five minutes into the second half, when Nathan Ake got his head to a Mahrez free kick and beat Fabianski.
Haaland made it 2-0 in the 70th minute with his record 35th Premier League goal of the season, besting the previous mark of 34, shared by Andrew Cole and Alan Shearer.
With five matches to play, the Norwegian looks likely to surpass the 37 goals scored by Ron Davies over 41 games in 1966-1967 in what was then the Football League First Division.
Late sub Phil Foden added a third goal with five minutes left in regulation.
After the final whistle, City players formed a guard of honor for Haaland to mark his achievement.
In Wednesday’s other Premier League action, Liverpool extended their winning streak to five with a 1-0 victory over Fulham at Anfield.
The visitors from London nearly grabbed the lead in the 6th minute thanks to Carlos Vinicius, who beat Alisson only to see Virgil van Dijk redirect the ball away from goal at the last second.
Vinicius threatened again in the 15th minute, but the Reds keeper was there to make the stop.
Issa Diop fouled Darwin Nuñez in the area in the 38th minute and the referee pointed to the spot. Mohamed Salah converted with authority to give the hosts the lead.
Nuñez fired wide and Salah sent his shot over the bar on chances to give the Reds a cushion early in the second half and Allison denied Vinicius for a second time in the 78th minute Fulham’s Bobby Decordova-Reid had an opportunity to equalize in stoppage time, but his attempt went over the cross-bar.
The result left Liverpool in fifth place with 59 points, 4 behind Manchester United, who will visit Brighton & Hove Albion on Thursday.
Fulham are 10th on 45 points.
EFE /dr
