Man City and Aston Villa win to stay in touch with Premier League leader Arsenal

MANCHESTER England AP Manchester City and Aston Villa kept the pressure on Premier League leader Arsenal with wins on Sunday Nottingham Forest pulled further away from the relegation zone with a - success against Tottenham and Sunderland beat Newcastle - in the Tyne-Wear derby after an own-goal from Nick Woltemade Arsenal had extended its lead at the top of the standings to five points with a - win against Wolves on Saturday But a day later its closest rivals both responded with victories second-place City winning - at Crystal Palace and Villa in third twice coming back to beat West Ham - at the London Stadium City is two points behind Arsenal and Villa is a point further back Revenge for City Beaten by Palace in the FA Cup final last season City exacted particular revenge to take all three points at Selhurst Park They are so strong Every time we play against them it s so hard City manager Pep Guardiola noted Still we are not top but we are learning and after what happened we will be closer in the future Erling Haaland scored his st Premier League goal to put City in front late in the first half and he got his second of the match with an th-minute penalty The Norwegian has goals in appearances for club and country in another remarkable scoring season He is the league s leading scorer with goals Phil Foden got City s other goal in between Haaland s double Rogers leads Villa fightback Morgan Rogers scored twice in the second half to extend Aston Villa s winning run to nine-straight games in all competitions and keep Unai Emery s organization on the heels of Arsenal and City Villa has lost just one of its last games in the league and won of its last but twice had to come from behind at relegation fighting West Ham We feel unstoppable but we are making it complex for ourselves Rogers explained The battle and resilience we have means we know we can get back into it against a good squad We want to keep this going it s about being confident and I m feeling good Mateus Fernandes scored the fastest goal in England s top flight this season when putting the home unit - up after just seconds But Konstantinos Mavropanos own-goal leveled the battle eight minutes later Jarrod Bowen then gave West Ham the lead at halftime with his second goal in as a great number of games in the th Rogers leveled the contest again five minutes after the break and struck the winner in the th Frank burning after Spurs humbled by Forest The pressure is mounting on Tottenham coach Thomas Frank who was left infuriated after a latest loss Spurs have won just one of their last seven games in the league and face defending champion Liverpool at home next week It s hugely annoying I m burning inside commented Frank I had such a good feeling going into this match then we deliver this performance which is not good enough Two goals from Callum Hudson-Odoi at the City Ground put Frank s band on unit for another defeat a sixth in the league this season Ibrahim Sangare completed a miserable day for the visitors but a joyous one for Forest which is five points clear of the relegation zone after being re-energized since the appointment of Sean Dyche as coach in October Forest has won six of its last eight under Dyche including four in the league Woe for Woltemade respect for Sunderland Woltemade endured an agonizing first Tyne-Wear derby since joining Newcastle after his own-goal handed mastery to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light The Germany striker has impressed since his club record million move from Stuttgart in August But he made himself a hero to Newcastle s fiercest rival Sunderland when heading past Aaron Ramsdale a minute into second half To make matters worse Woltemade was barely a threat at the other end registering one shot before being replaced by Yoane Wissa in the th Derbies are there to be won it doesn t matter how Sunderland captain Granit Xhaka revealed Sunderland is up to seventh in the standings level on points with Liverpool This squad deserves respect because where we are is what we deserve revealed Xhaka James Robson is at https x com jamesalanrobson AP soccer https apnews com hub soccer Source