By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) -Newcastle United beat Chelsea and Nottingham Forest dropped points again as a gripping battle for a top-five finish in the Premier League took more twists and turns on Sunday.
Champions Liverpool were given a guard of honour by second-placed Arsenal before the sides played out a 2-2 draw at Anfield, but the real intrigue was to be found elsewhere.
Newcastle took full advantage of Manchester City’s failure to beat bottom club Southampton on Saturday as they enjoyed a 2-0 win over Chelsea to move into third place with 66 points.
With two games left Eddie Howe’s side are now two points behind Arsenal and three points above sixth-placed Aston Villa. Newcastle face Arsenal away next Sunday.
The top five in the Premier League are all guaranteed to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Defeat for Chelsea, who played more than half the match with 10 men after Nicolas Jackson was sent off, left them in fifth place with 63 points, ahead of Villa only on goal difference.
Forest conceded late to draw 2-2 at home to already-relegated Leicester City and while that point guaranteed them European football next season, their hopes of playing in the Champions League are faltering. They have 62 points.
Newcastle have already ended a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy this season by winning the League Cup and are closing in on a return to the Champions League after a priceless victory against Chelsea at St James’ Park.
Sandro Tonali’s goal after two minutes put Newcastle ahead and a late Bruno Guimaraes effort wrapped up the victory.
While Newcastle were good value for their win, it was Jackson’s moment of madness that robbed Chelsea of their best goal-scoring option in a game the UEFA Conference League finalists could not afford to lose.
Jackson had his initial yellow card upgraded to a red in the 35th minute after a long VAR review, with the replay showing that the striker had looked in the direction of Newcastle’s Dan Burn before leading with his elbow towards the defender’s face.
“I think sometimes it’s hard when they go down to 10 men because you should feel like you dominate but there’s always that little bit of you that doesn’t want to let them back into it,” Burn said. “The crowd were a bit nervous, I think we felt a bit nervous as well.”
Nottingham Forest have now won only one of their last six in the league and were left crestfallen on Sunday as Facundo Buonanotte scored a late equaliser for Leicester.
Conor Coady had given Leicester the lead but goals by midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White and forward Chris Wood appeared to have secured a vital victory for the hosts.
After the final whistle, Forest’s owner Evangelos Marinakis came on the pitch and remonstrated with manager Nuno Espirito Santo despite Forest securing a return to Europe after a 30-year absence.
Espirito Santo said the emotional outburst had been because Marinakis could not understand why Taiwo Awoniyi had not been substituted despite being clearly injured.
Arsenal could have secured Champions League qualification with victory at Liverpool but were off the pace in the first half and trailed to goals by Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz.
“We reacted, great, but the standards in the first 20 minutes was unacceptable,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
His team improved in the second half and Gabriel Martinelli headed home just after the restart before Mikel Merino headed in a rebound after Martin Odegaard’s shot hit the woodwork. Merino was later sent off for a lunging tackle on Dominik Szoboszlai.
Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United will contest the Europa League final on May 21 when a Champions League spot will also be at stake but their lamentable Premier League seasons plumbed new depths of mediocrity on Sunday.
Tottenham’s 2-0 home defeat by Crystal Palace, for whom Eberechi Eze scored twice, was their 20th league reverse this season and left them 17th in the table. It was Palace’s first win at Tottenham for 28 years and means they have 49 points, equalling their best Premier League haul with two games left.
Manchester United are 16th after a 2-0 home defeat by West Ham United — their 17th league loss this season. Goals by Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen earned West Ham a first win in 18 years at Old Trafford.
(Reporting by Martyn HermanEditing by Toby Davis)
