
Results:
AFC Bournemouth 1 Newcastle United 4
Arsenal 4 Norwich City 0
Everton 2 Leicester City 1
West Ham United 3 Chelsea 2
Round-up: The Premier League's action continued with four games on Wednesday, with matches which had huge significance down at the bottom as well as in the battle for European football. Down at the bottom, AFC Bournemouth's survival hopes took a huge hit as they suffered a 4-1 drubbing at the hands of Newcastle United. It took a mere 5 minutes for Newcastle to open the scoring, and they did so thanks to striker Dwight Gayle after some extremely sloppy play from AFC Bournemouth. Newcastle then doubled the lead thanks to a Sean Longstaff goal on the half-hour mark. Second half goals from Miguel Almiron and Valentino Lazaro made the scoreline 4-0, before Dan Gosling bagged a 90th minute consolation for AFC Bournemouth, in a result which sees them drop into 19th place, below Aston Villa by virtue of fewer goals scored. Another side struggling down right at the bottom, Norwich City, also suffered yet another blow in their bid to try and mount a late escape from the relegation zone, as they were beaten 4-0 by Mikel Arteta's Arsenal. Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang gave Arsenal the lead on 33 minutes after an uncharacteristic mistake by Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul, before Granit Xhaka made it 2-0 just 4 minutes later. Aubameyang bagged his second goal of the game in the 67th minute, before Cedric Soares' 81st minute goal wrapped up a 4-0 win for the Gunners. Meanwhile, in the race for Europe, Leicester City continued their poor form since the resumption of the league campaign and suffered another setback in their bid to qualify for next season's Champions League, as they were beaten 2-1 away at an in-form Everton thanks to goals from Richarlison and Glyfi Sigurdsson via the penalty spot, as a dubious decision regarding whether the ball hit Leicester's Wilfred Ndidi or Michael Keane's arm, led to the VAR ruling that the ball did strike Ndidi's arm which meant Everton were awarded a penalty. Kelechi Iheanacho halved the deficit for Leicester, but it was insufficient and Everton held on for all three points - in a disappointing result for Leicester which has meant their gap to fifth placed Manchester United has been reduced to 3 points (it was 8 when the season was suspended). Wednesday's action concluded with a London derby with significance both in terms of the relegation battle as well as in the battle for Europe, as struggling West Ham United hosted fourth-placed Chelsea. As a result of Leicester's defeat, Chelsea knew that a win would move them into third place above the East Midlands side. After West Ham had a disallowed goal from Tomas Soucek by the VAR as Michail Antonio was deemed to be in an offside position, Chelsea put themselves on course to move into third as Willian scored from the penalty spot in the 42nd minute following a foul on Christian Pulisic by West Ham defender Issa Diop which resulted in a penalty being awarded. That lead did not even last until half-time, as Tomas Soucek had the ball in the net once again in the 45th minute, and this time it counted - which meant the sides went into half-time level at one each. Michail Antonio then gave West Ham the lead in the 51st minute, before that was cancelled out in the 72nd minute thanks to a brilliant free-kick by Willian. It seemed as though the London rivals were going to settle for a point, until a late counter-attack from West Ham was finished off by Andriy Yarmolenko in the 89th minute to give West Ham an invaluable win in their battle against relegation.
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