Rashford strikes, United rise again – Dominant Spurs keep pressure on Leicester

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MANCHESTER, United Kingdom, March 20, (AFP): Teenage sensation Marcus Rashford struck again as Manchester United won 1-0 at Manchester City on Sunday to rekindle their top-four challenge and fatally compromise their derby rivals’ Premier League title hopes.

Rashford embarrassed hapless City defender Martin Demichelis to score the game’s only goal in the 16th minute, taking his tally to five goals in eight first-team appearances and making him the youngest ever Manchester derby goalscorer at the age of 18 years and 141 days.

Victory took Louis van Gaal’s side to within a point of fourth-place City, stemming a damaging run of four games without victory and creating hope that United may yet finish a testing season by claiming a Champions League berth.

City’s grip on fourth place is also at threat from West Ham United and although they retain a game in hand on the teams above them, they now trail leaders Leicester City by a massive 15 points.

Compounding a miserable last derby for outgoing City manager Manuel Pellegrini, the hosts lost both goalkeeper Joe Hart and winger Raheem Sterling to injury. With Vincent Kompany and Nicolas Otamendi having both succumbed to injury against Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday, it has been a week that Pellegrini may come to rue when his side cross paths with Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League next month.

Buoyed by their historic Champions League success against Dynamo, City had attacked the game with purpose and twice went close to taking the lead through Jesus Navas in the early stages.

Fernandinho also headed over the bar from a Navas corner, but United’s pace on the break gave them a ready outlet and in the 16th minute they struck.

Juan Mata fed Rashford on the edge of the box and the youngster planted Demichelis on his backside before tucking a shot past Hart to claim his own piece of derby history.

Shorn of captain Kompany and Otamendi, City were always likely to be vulnerable in central defence and Hart was called into action moments later to beat away a shot from Anthony Martial. At the other end, Demichelis got his head to David Silva’s free-kick, but the ball passed the wrong side of David de Gea’s left-hand post.

An apparent groin injury to Sterling gave Pellegrini an opportunity to bolster his midfield, with Fernando entering in place of the England international and Yaya Toure moving forward.

It put Toure in a better position to inflict damage and he twice went close to equalising, curling narrowly wide with his left foot and then stabbing off-target after Bacary Sagna flicked on a Navas free-kick.

Harry Kane blew Bournemouth away as title-chasing Tottenham kept the pressure on Premier League leaders Leicester with a swaggering 3-0 victory.

Kane took just 44 seconds to open the scoring at White Hart Lane and the Tottenham striker netted again 15 minutes later to effectively kill off Bournemouth before half-time. Christian Eriksen added Tottenham’s third goal after the interval to keep his side firmly in the hunt for a first English title since 1961.

Mauricio Pochettino’s second-placed team are only five points behind Leicester and, with seven games remaining, they go into the international break as the most credible candidates to profit from any slips by the leaders in the closing weeks.

This was a high-class Tottenham display and Kane, who had scored twice to seal last weekend’s victory at Aston Villa, looks almost unstoppable at present.

Standings

                          P  W   D    L GF GA Pts

Leicester            31  19    9    3  54   31  66

Tottenham          31  17  10    4  56   24  61

Arsenal              30  16    7    7  48   30  55

Man City            30  15    6    9  52   32  51

West Ham         30  13  11    6  47   35  50

Man Utd            30  14    8    8  38   27  50

Southampton      31  13    8  10  41   32  47

Stoke                31  13    7  11  34   37  46

Liverpool            29  12    8    9  45   40  44

Chelsea             30  10  11    9  45   41  41

West Brom         30  10    9  11  30   37  39

Everton              29    9  11    9  51   41  38

Bournemouth      31  10    8  13  38   50  38

Watford             30  10    7  13  30   32  37

Swansea            31    9    9  13  31   40  36

Crystal Palace    30    9    6  15  32   40  33

Norwich             31    7    7  17  32   54  28

Sunderland         30    6    8  16  36   55  26

Newcastle          30    6    7  17  29   55  25

Aston Villa          31    3    7  21  22   58  16

Note 1: Top four teams qualify for Champions League; teams finishing 5th-6th qualify for Europa League; bottom three teams relegated to Championship.

Note 2: Standings read as played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against and points.

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