{"id":34135,"date":"2026-05-10T16:33:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34135"},"modified":"2026-05-10T16:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T14:33:48","slug":"man-city-stay-in-title-hunt-liverpool-held-bournemouth-eye-europe","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/man-city-stay-in-title-hunt-liverpool-held-bournemouth-eye-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Man City stay in title hunt, Liverpool held, Bournemouth eye Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Manchester City sent out a defiant message to Premier League title favourites Arsenal as Pep Guardiola&#8217;s side scored three second-half goals to beat \u200bvisiting Brentford 3-0 on Saturday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Anything other than a win would have left City&#8217;s hopes of reclaiming the crown hanging by a slender thread and it looked unlikely in \u200ca subdued first half.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But a superb strike into the top corner by Jeremy Doku and further goals by Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush earned City the win that cut Arsenal&#8217;s lead to two points.<\/div>\n<div>Liverpool failed to wrap up Champions League qualification as they drew 1-1 at home to Chelsea, while Bournemouth moved into sixth place with a 1-0 win at Fulham in which both sides ended with 10 men.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Brighton &amp; Hove Albion also boosted their hopes of qualifying for Europe with a 3-0 \u200bwin over bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Manchester United, who are already assured of a top-five finish, drew 0-0 at Sunderland.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>City&#8217;s chaotic 3-3 draw at Everton in midweek was a hammer blow \u200bto Pep Guardiola&#8217;s side and left Arsenal in prime position to win the title for the first time since 2004.<\/div>\n<div>It left City five points adrift with \u2060a game in hand, but on Saturday they showed they are not ready to throw in the towel.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>They now have 74 points behind Arsenal on 76 after 35 games but the Gunners have a \u200bgoal difference advantage of one. Arsenal face a tricky derby at relegation-threatened West Ham United on Sunday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Win that, and with a home game against relegated Burnley next, Arsenal would be breathing easier, but any slip \u200bat the London Stadium would leave the door ajar for City.<\/div>\n<div>City&#8217;s next game is at home to Crystal Palace on Wednesday.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We knew we had to win after the draw (at Everton),&#8221; Belgian Doku, who scored a last-gasp equaliser at Everton, said. &#8220;When you arrive at this point you always find some energy to push through and we will continue in the next games.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Brentford were proving a tough nut to crack until Doku cut in from the right in the 60th minute and \u200bcurled an unstoppable right-foot shot high into the far corner.<\/div>\n<div>Haaland then bundled his way through to a 26th league goal of the season and Marmoush slotted a silky third late on.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22854,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34135","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"They now have 74 points behind Arsenal on 76 after 35 games.","published_date":"","news_description":"They now have 74 points behind Arsenal on 76 after 35 games.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34138,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34135\/revisions\/34138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}