New Telegraph

EPL: West Ham strike late in thriller with Chelsea

*As Bournemouth’s woes continue, wins for Arsenal, Everton

Andriy Yarmolenko’s last-gasp winner settled an eventful London derby with Chelsea and delivered a huge boost to West Ham United’s hopes of avoiding relegation.
In a topsy-turvy game, which saw West Ham infuriated when Tomas Soucek’s first-half goal was ruled out by VAR, substitute Yarmolenko made the decisive contribution when the finished off a superb counter attack with a classic left-foot finish.
It looked like both sides would have to settle for a point but that late twist not only provides a huge morale lift to David Moyes’ side, putting them three points clear of the relegation places, but also completed a good 24 hours for Manchester United in the race for Champions League places after their win at Brighton and third-placed Leicester City’s loss at Everton.
Moyes was angry when Soucek saw a first-half goal ruled out because Michail Antonio was adjudged to be offside and in Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga’s line of vision.
Chelsea then took the lead through Willian’s penalty but battling West Ham levelled through Soucek’s header right on the stroke of half-time.
Man-of-the-match Antonio bundled West Ham in front six minutes after the interval but this eventful affair looked to be heading for a draw when Willian’s superb free-kick with 18 minutes left put Chelsea level.
And yet, with injury-time looming, West Ham broke and the tireless Antonio set up Yarmolenko for a crisp finish that gave Moyes’ men what could be a priceless three points.
However, Bournemouth’s Premier League survival was dealt another blow as Newcastle beat them comprehensively with an exciting performance at Vitality Stadium.
Jefferson Lerma’s mistake was punished by Dwight Gayle to give Newcastle an early lead and Cherries manager Eddie Howe shook his head in frustration as Sean Longstaff made it 2-0 within half an hour.
Bournemouth hit the woodwork twice in the second half but could not recover once Miguel Almiron netted a third for Newcastle, reports the BBC.
Substitute Valentino Lazaro made it 4-0 after he was slipped in by Jonjo Shelvey and he hit the post moments later, before Isaac Hayden skewed the rebound over from a few yards out.
Dan Gosling bundled in a consolation goal in stoppage time for Bournemouth, who now sit second-from-bottom of the Premier League with six games remaining.

Painful times continue for Cherries

Relegation now seems a matter of when and not if for Bournemouth, who desperately needed points from this game.
Manager Eddie Howe said their situation “hurt deeply” following their recent 1-0 defeat by Wolves; against Newcastle, his players looked like a team resigned to going down rather than one fighting to stay up.
Lerma’s early mistake summed them up – his poor first touch invited pressure from Longstaff, who won possession back for Newcastle. From that point on, Bournemouth looked shaky, short of confidence and reluctant to play out from the back.
And Everton kept up their post-restart push for a place in next season’s Europa League with an impressive victory over Leicester at Goodison Park.
The Blues are unbeaten since the Premier League began again two weeks ago, with a second successive win coming courtesy of two goals in quick succession in the game’s first quarter.
Richarlison struck from close range before Gylfi Sigurdsson scored a debatable penalty, awarded following a lengthy VAR review for handball against Wilfred Ndidi.
Leicester rallied at the start of the second half and pulled a somewhat fortuitous goal back when Mason Holgate’s attempted clearance flew into the net off the face of substitute Kelechi Iheanacho.
But they were unable to make the most of the larger share of possession and chances to gain parity.
It is another blow for the Foxes, who exited the FA Cup at the hands of Chelsea at the weekend and now face a real test to hang on to their top-four spot in the table.
Two points from their past three games has opened the door to Manchester United and Wolves, both of whom are only three points behind Leicester and in much better form.
In the third game, a howler by goalkeeper Tim Krul helped set Arsenal on their way to a win that lifts them up to seventh as bottom club Norwich City’s hopes of staying in the Premier League faded further.
Dutchman Krul lost possession to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the edge of his own penalty area for Arsenal’s opener, the Gabon forward whipping the ball from his feet to score his 18th top-flight goal of the season.
Aubameyang then turned provider for Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka to sweep home his first club goal since March 2019 before Aubameyang added the third after a mistake by Josip Drmic.
Substitute Cedric Soares completed the rout, the substitute scoring from outside the penalty area four minutes after coming on for his Gunners debut.
Norwich, six points from safety with six games left, hit the woodwork through Ben Godfrey when the game was goalless, while Emiliano Martinez produced a fine save to keep out Kenny McLean’s free-kick.
RESULTS
West Ham 3 – 2 Chelsea
Everton 2 – 1 Leicester
Arsenal 4 – 0 Norwich
Bournemouth 1 – 4 Newcastle

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