Aston Villa have been cut to 11/10 in bwin’s Premier League top 4 odds after beating Arsenal 1-0 at Villa Park.
Captain John McGinn’s seventh-minute strike helped Villa extend their winning home league run to 15 games and move to within two points of the Premier League summit.
Arsenal twice had the ball in the net in the second half but Bukayo Saka was offside before Kai Havertz was denied a late equaliser having been penalised for handball.
Villa beat champions Manchester City at Villa Park on Wednesday night and this success shows they are legitimate challengers for the title this season.
“It’s a huge win but we’ve got to keep our feet on the ground,” McGinn told VillaTV.
“These teams are used to being up and around there and we’re not. We need to try and manage the games as best we can going into a really busy spell.
“The tiredness from the past two weeks started to kick in and there were some dead bodies out there – me included – but it was an absolutely monumental effort. It wasn’t pretty at times but they’re a great side. What a week.”
Arsenal eased to 1/12 after slipping to second as a result of their second league loss of the season with new leaders Liverpool the same price after winning 2-1 at 10-man Crystal Palace.
Manchester City are 1/25 having ended a run of four games without a win by beating Luton 2-1 at Kenilworth Road thanks to second-half goals from Bernardo Silva and Jack Grealish.
Fernandes apologises for United display
Manchester United drifted to 5/1 in bwin’s Premier League top 4 odds after suffering a 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth.
Dominic Solanke put Bournemouth ahead after five minutes, with Philip Billing and Marcos Senesi headers securing a first Old Trafford win for the Cherries.
Captain Bruno Fernande said: “(I want) to apologise for the performance. It was not acceptable, starting on me. I’m not talking about anyone else.
“But I think everyone agrees in the dressing room that the performance was (not) at our level and we have to perform much better.
“It was underperforming on quality-wise, on effort-wise and not aggressive as we did in the last game against Chelsea.
“If you don’t do your job, you’re not going to win the game.”
Tottenham are now 19/10 for a top-four finish after returning to winning ways by beating Newcastle 4-1 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Richarlison bagged a brace as Spurs ended a five-match winless run in style to stay fifth, three points behind Manchester City in fourth,
Ange Postecoglou paid tribute to Richarlison, who has struggled since his £60million move last year and recently had groin surgery to correct a long-standing issue.
“Yeah, Richy was great, really important,” Postecoglou reflected.
“I thought him and Pape (Sarr) coming in gave us some real energy. We were going to need it with the midweek fixture (against West Ham) and I thought they did that.
“Obviously for Richy, getting a couple of goals as a striker was positive for him.
“Richy was important to us at the start of the year too but he wasn’t fully fit. I think you could tell he was kind of restricted with his movements.
“At times we had to play him out wide just to get him through games. Since he’s come back, it’s fair to say he feels a lot better physically and I think that’s helped him mentally as well.
“Great for him to get two goals but it wasn’t just his goals, it was his general work-rate, energy and physicality.”
Newcastle have drifted to 12/5 after a second successive away defeat in a week, which left them in seventh place in the table, seven points adrift of the top four.
Boss Eddie Howe said: “It was a difficult afternoon. I think the players have done so well to keep going in what was a very congested fixture period of games with very hard fixtures.
“Everton and Tottenham away in a very short period of time, we haven’t been our best. That is very evident for everyone to see.
“I think the players have given everything, given everything they could give so I have to back them and support them, but acknowledge our performance was way off what it should be.”
Brighton are 10/1 after being frustrated by a 1-1 draw at home to struggling Burnley, with Chelsea the same price after going down 2-0 at Everton which left them in 12th.
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