Leaders Manchester City shrugged off a bitterly disappointing week to beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 at Wembley and move to within three points of sealing the English Premier League title.
Manchester City celebrate a goal against Tottenham Hotspur. Photo: Photosport
City, who were deprived of wrapping up the title in dream fashion last weekend when they lost at home to Manchester United and were then knocked out of the Champions League by Liverpool, were two up after 25 minutes as they hit back with a vengeance on Sunday (NZ time).
Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring in the 22nd minute before Ilkay Gundogan slotted home a penalty three minutes later after Spurs keeper Hugo Lloris raced out of his goal and upended Raheem Sterling on the edge of the area.
Christian Eriksen's goal shortly before halftime offered fourth-placed Tottenham a route back into the game but Sterling lashed home from close range in the 72nd minute.
Pep Guardiola's City side stand 16 points clear of second-placed Manchester United and could be crowned champions as soon as Monday, if United fail to beat bottom team West Bromwich Albion.
Earlier, Chelsea staged a spectacular comeback with three goals in nine second- half minutes to beat Southampton 3-2 and revive their faint hopes of a top-four Premier League finish as Saints remained in the drop zone.
Olivier Giroud scored twice, his first league goals for Chelsea, either side of an Eden Hazard strike just when it looked like Antonio Conte's visitors lacked the fight against opponents who scrapped for every tackle at St Mary's.
Southampton looked to be cruising towards a win that would have lifted them out of the relegation places, at least temporarily, after Dusan Tadic and Jan Bednarek put them two goals ahead.
But Saints have struggled to hold on to leads this season and they collapsed halfway through the second half, conceding three goals for the fourth successive league game.
The two sides meet again in the FA Cup semi-final next weekend.
Giroud was named as man of the match after his cameo, which featured his first Premier League goals for the club since joining from Arsenal.
"I was waiting for it," the France international told Sky Sports.
"I was waiting for it. I have tried so many times to put it in the back of the net. As a striker, you need to keep going and keep your head high."
Later, Mohamed Salah became just the third Liverpool player in history to score 40 goals in a single season by netting once more in a 3-0 win over Bournemouth.
The Premier League's leading scorer joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush in the 40 club with a brilliant second-half header that added to Sadio Mane's early strike and preceded Roberto Firmino's late goal.
The victory kept the Reds in third, 10 points ahead off Chelsea, rounding off a fine week for after they also booked a Champions League semi-final against Roma by beating Manchester City 5-1 on aggregate with a second-leg win on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Crystal Palace and Huddersfield took significant strides towards retaining their Premier League places.
Following Southampton's earlier defeat Palace were 3-2 winners over Brighton, with all five goals inside the first half. Wilfried Zaha scored two of them and Roy Hodgson's men are now six points clear of the Saints.
Huddersfield are seven points better off; Socceroos star Aaron Mooy's side leaving it until injury time to clinch a 1-0 victory over Watford thanks to Tom Ince scoring the winner.
Swansea are five points ahead of Southampton after a 1-1 home draw with Everton.
Elsewhere, Burnley's unlikely pursuit of a Europa League spot continued as they beat Leicester 2-1 thanks to goals from Chris Wood and Kevin Long.
- Reuters
