West Ham looked to have secured a point away at Bournemouth following Andre Ayew’s goal seven minutes from time. Bournemouth however came back again and scored in the final minute to hand the Hammers their second defeat in a row. After a turn in form in January the side now have not won for the last four games but remain comfortable in mid table. Bournemouth however took a large step closer to Premier League survival with that win and cemented their 14th place in the table. Following what was their first win since December, they now sit six points above the relegation zone and will be hoping they have turned their form. West Ham remain in 11th on 33 points and outside of the top half on goal difference alone but Southampton above them have two games extra to play.
Liverpool moved six points ahead of United after coming from behind against Burnley to win their third home game in a row. Burnley are yet to win away from home this season but they have not been beaten by more than one goal since December 3rd and have scored in each of their last 12 games. They currently sit in 12th in the league and should have enough quality to stay up now, but they need to add a few more points to their total before they can be certain.
Hull City moved up a place to 18th courtesy of a 2-1 win at home to Swansea. Although they had put in impressive performances of late under Marco Silva, Hull were still lacking a good points return to show for it. This win takes them within a point of Crystal Palace and three behind those above that. Swansea are one of those teams just three points above Hull and although they too have been very good these last few months, they will still need to continue to pick up enough points to survive.
Everton beat West Brom 3-0 at Goodison Park to increase the gap top those below to seven points. If they can continue this impressive run of form then they have an outside shot of finishing higher in the league than their current 7th place. They now sit two points behind Manchester United and five from Arsenal but have played two games more. Everton have scored 26 goals in their last 11 games and lost just once so early December. West Brom however have now lost two in a row since reaching 40 points and seem stranded in mid table.
Arsenal, Man City and Tottenham all progressed to the Semi Final of the FA Cup and so Liverpool fans will be hopeful that they could lose focus on the league in the later stages of the season. All will have games to catch up but Liverpool have seen already this season that too many games during a month can hurt form. Arsenal came back from their Champions League exit to beat non league side Lincoln 5-0 at home. It is difficult to tell if it this game was a return to form given the level of opposition but it will surely give the side a moral boost. Spurs also had a big home win against lower league opponents with a 6-0 win over Millwall. The loss of Harry Kane after 10 minutes could see them struggle for goals if he is to miss any games in the run in. Man City rounded things off with a convincing 2-0 away win at Premier League strugglers Middlesbrough. Man United will travel to Chelsea in the final game of the FA Cup fixtures tonight.
In the next five games West Ham play four sides from the bottom half of the table and so they will be looking to maximise points until April. With little improvement to be made on their league position however, the side may be trapped in the no man’s land and allow the season to roll to an end.
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
