Chelsea bounce back with 6-0 thrashing of Southampton

Sports Desk, Apr 9 (EFE).- Chelsea shook off two straight home defeats to pound Southampton 6-0 Saturday on the South Coast and tighten their grip on third place in the Premier League.

The visit to St. Mary’s proved to be just the tonic the Blues needed after demoralizing losses at Stamford Bridge against Brentford and Real Madrid and coach Thomas Tuchel will hope his men put on a similar display when they face the Blancos in Madrid next week in the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal tie.

Mason Mount and Timo Werner each had a brace and the German, who hadn’t scored in the Premier League for six months, hit the woodwork on three other occasions.

Marcos Alonso and Kai Havertz had the other goals for Chelsea, who improved to 62 points. The Saints are 13th with 36 points.

Arsenal started Saturday just outside the top four on goal difference and with a chance to help themselves against a Brighton & Hove Albion side who had failed to score in their three previous games.

But the Seagulls ended their scoring drought with a goal in the 28th minute by Leandro Trossard and the Gunners saw Gabriel Martinelli’s apparent equalizer just before half-time disallowed after a four-minute-long VAR review detected an offside infraction.

Enock Mwepu, who assisted on Trossard’s goal, made it 2-0 in the 66th minute. Martin Odegaard narrowed the gap with a goal in the 89th and Arsenal flew forward in pursuit of taking at least a point, but the visitors held on to win.

Brighton climbed to 11th place on 37 points, while Arsenal remain fifth with 54 points, three behind Tottenham Hotspur, who romped 4-0 Saturday over 12th-place Aston Villa.

Heung-min Son posted a hat trick to go second behind Liverpool’s Mo Salah in the race for Premier League golden boot and Dejan Kulusevski scored his third goal since joining Spurs in February from Juventus.

Manchester United’s disappointing season continued on Saturday as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Everton.

Cristiano Ronaldo, returning from illness, was a peripheral figure throughout for United, who lacked the required offensive spark and failed to match the home team’s energy.

Everton scored the game’s only goal midway through the first half as Anthony Gordon’s shot from the edge of the box deflected off the hapless Harry Maguire to wrongfoot David de Gea.

While United enjoyed most of the possession, they rarely threatened Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal, and it was the home team that looked likelier to score as the game drew to a close in front of a raucous home crowd.

The win sees Everton open up a 4-point gap to Burnley in 18th ahead of their crucial relegation clash against Norwich on Sunday, while United continue to languish in seventh, well short of the Champions League places that increasingly look beyond their reach this season. EFE

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