City put one hand on Premier League trophy

It was a tense match for Manchester City fans but their team managed to turn what could have been a tragic draw into a 2-0 win over Newcastle on Sunday. 

With the score level at half-time, rival Manchester United fans would have been rubbing their hands with glee but Yaya Toure’s double meant the Premier League’s big spenders remain firm favourites for the title. 

Man United’s 2-0 win over Swansea in the late kick-off left the two Manchester sides level on points, however, City are ahead on goal difference and look certain to seal their first English championship since 1968 with victory against QPR next weekend.

Once again City manager Roberto Mancini played down his team’s chances.

English Results

Sunday May 6  Newcastle 0-2 Man City  Aston Villa 1-1 Tottenham  Bolton 2-2 West Brom  Fulham 2-1 Sunderland   QPR 1-0 Stoke  Wolves 0-0 Everton   Man Utd 2-0 Swansea

“We have one more match to go and it will be a difficult game like today,” he said.

“I think we deserved to win the game because we had a lot of chances but because we did not score in the first half it became difficult.”

After stalemate for 70 minutes, City went ahead when Ivory Coast midfielder Toure exchanged passes with Sergio Aguero on the edge of the area before calmly placing a curling right-foot shot past diving goalkeeper Tim Krul.

City fans then let out a collective sigh of relief when Toure made it 2-0 with a minute left as City exploited space left by the home side’s search for an equaliser.

The result hit Newcastle’s hopes of finishing in fourth place and qualifying for the Champions League. 

Man United who needed to make up a goal difference of ten only managed to score two goals against Swansea. Before the game Alex Ferguson conceded to Sky Sports that City may have both hands on the trophy.

Despite the disappointment of knowing their title hopes had slipped away, United came out strongly and went ahead after a cheeky backheel from Paul Scholes and added a second when Ashley Young struck a sweet shot past Michel Vorm.

United’s final match is at mid-table Sunderland.  

Fourth placed Tottenham moved a point ahead of Newcastle but failed to leap ahead of Arsenal into third after a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.

Relegation threatened Villa took the lead through Ciaran Clark’s 35th minute goal and strengthened their position when Tottenham’s Danny Rose was sent off for a foul on former Spurs defender Alan Hutton.

But when Richard Dunne took down Sandro in the area, Emmanuel Adebayor drew Spurs level with his 16th goal of the season.

The point means Villa will avoid relegation barring a combination of extremely unlikely final-day results.

Relegation battle 

At the bottom of the league, Bolton stayed in the relegation zone after wasting a two-goal lead over West Brom.

Bolton grabbed the lead from the penalty spot in the 24th minute and went 2-0 up courtesy of an own goal.  

But the Baggies fought back to 2-2 leaving Bolton’s future in the Premier League uncertain after QPR took victory against Stoke late on.

Substitute Djibril Cisse scored in the 89th minute to move the Hoops away from the drop zone. Mark Hughes’ side are now two points clear of the relegation zone with one game to play.

Clint Dempsey was again on hand for Fulham scoring in his team’s 2-1 victory over Sunderland at Craven Cottage.

Fulham took the lead as Dempsey scored his 23rd goal of the season and 50th of his Premier League career.

Defender Philip Bardsley levelled for Sunderland but Mousa Dembele restored Fulham’s lead just a minute later with a deflected drive which found the top corner.

Already relegated Wolves held on for a 0-0 draw against Everton who now lie in an impressive seventh.