Brentford 2 West Ham 0
Brentford continued their resurgent form by beating West Ham United 2-0 at home in on Sunday to rack up a fourth win in five matches and take another step towards guaranteeing their Premier League survival.
Fresh from their shock 4-1 win at Champions League holders Chelsea last week, Thomas Frank’s side overwhelmed another side with European ambitions, Bryan Mbeumo opening the scoring in the second half before top scorer Ivan Toney doubled the lead.
Brentford struck first after a quick-thinking throw-in as Toney slipped the ball into the path of French forward Mbeumo, who slotted into the net with a first-time finish in the 48th minute.
Mbeumo repaid the favour by crossing for Toney to head home from close range in the 64th and Brentford comfortably saw out the win to climb to 13th in the table on 36 points, 12 clear of the relegation zone.
Frank’s side lost seven games out of eight before turning the tide with a 3-1 win at Norwich City in early March.
The result was a further blow to West Ham’s hopes of finishing in the top four as they were left sixth on 51 points, six behind fourth-placed Tottenham.
Norwich City 2 Burnley 0
Norwich City midfielder Pierre Lees-Melou scored his first goal for the club and Teemu Pukki’s late strike secured a 2-0 win over Burnley in a Premier League relegation battle at Carrow Road.
Bottom side Norwich went ahead in the ninth minute as a corner found its way to Frenchman Lees-Melou, whose shot from the edge of the penalty area took a deflection and flew in after clipping the post.
Forward Pukki fired into the far corner in the 86th minute to double the advantage after latching on to Mathias Normann’s fine through ball which caught Burnley’s defence totally off guard.
Earlier, Burnley’s Maxwel Cornet sliced a cross by Dwight McNeil wide from point-blank range and Norwich wasted chances to put the game to bed as Grant Hanley headed onto the woodwork and Milot Rashica had a shot saved.
Norwich’s first league victory since January took them to 21 points with seven games left and followed last weekend’s 0-0 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion, giving manager Dean Smith hope they can pull off a miracle and escape the drop.
Defeat was especially disappointing for Sean Dyche’s side who remained 18th on 24 points, four below Everton and nine adrift of Leeds United above them after both those teams won on Saturday to boost their survival bids.
Leicester City 2 Crystal Palace 1
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall inspired Leicester to a narrow 2-1 home win over Crystal Palace.
The midfielder’s first Premier League goal came after a sublime assist for Ademola Lookman’s opener to give the Foxes the perfect preparation for Thursday’s trip to PSV.
They go to Eindhoven for their Europa Conference League quarter-final second leg with the tie poised at 0-0 but have momentum after just two defeats in their last 10 outings.
Kasper Schmeichel saved two Wilfried Zaha penalties — after VAR ordered a retake — only for the striker to nod in the rebound from the second which gave Palace second-half hope.
But a leveller never came and the Foxes move above Palace to ninth in the Premier League. The Eagles saw a seven-game unbeaten run come to an end, which had propelled them to Wembley for next week’s FA Cup semi-final with Chelsea.
