London (AFP)
Chelsea managed to overturn the poorly ranked Aston Villa, with a goal by Olivier Giroud (2-1) on Sunday for the 30th day of the Premier League, while Newcastle almost kept it going by defeating Sheffield United (3-0 ).
. Good operation for Chelsea
Chelsea made an excellent move in the Champions League race, despite a somewhat sluggish start, on the ground of Aston Villa who did not offer much for a club that has yet to save itself.
This success improves the draw between Tottenham and Manchester United (1-1), as well as the defeat of Sheffield, allowing the Blues, 4th and virtual qualifiers for the C1, to have 5 points ahead of the Red Devils and Wolverhampton, 7 on the Blades and 9 on the Spurs.
For their part, the Villans, who could not have done better than a sad 0-0 Wednesday for the resumption of the Premier League, remain 19th and relegated, but only one length of maintenance.
Although quickly domineering, Frank Lampard's men struggled to really create the danger, the fault of a lack of speed in the transmissions, understandable after 3 months of inactivity.
They were even surprised a little before the break on a harmless center, the defender Kortney Hause scoring in two stages after a beautiful reflex from Kepa and in the middle of a somewhat amorphous defense (1-0, 43).
The Blues kept their good intentions of the first period, adding a little rhythm, and logically cracked twice in two minutes the defense of Villa.
It was first Christian Pulisic, returned 5 minutes earlier, who equalized on a good run away from Cesar Azpilicueta (1-1) at the hour of play.
And Olivier Giroud, once again titular after a good series of matches before the forced truce, gave an important victory.
Already involved in the construction of the movement, Giroud received the ball back to goal in the area but he managed to turn around and his shot slightly deflected, took against Oerjan Nyland (1-2, 62nd).
Chelsea will then have two more elevated matches, with the reception of Manchester City, the dolphin of Liverpool, then a trip to Leicester, which leads it by 3 points and where it could play a place on the podium.
. Newcastle can blow
Far from the uncertainty behind the scenes on its project of recovery by a Saudi sovereign fund, Newcastle won a beautiful and important victory at home, 3-0 against Sheffield United.
By scoring three goals in the second best defense in the championship, Newcastle temporarily climbs to 12th place and has a comfortable mattress eleven steps ahead of the red zone eight days from the end.
For Sheffield United, 7th with 44 points, it is a mishap in the race for Europe, even if it remains two points Manchester United, 5th and last virtual European.
The match shifted in the 50th minute with the expulsion of John Egan for a fault in the position of last defender.
Already the last scorer of the Magpies before the confinement, during a success in Southampton (0-1) on March 7, the Frenchman Allan Saint-Maximin was very good and opened the scoring closely, five minutes later (55th) .
A goal celebrated on the knees in homage to the movement against racism and police violence "Black Lives Matter", which had already been honored by the two teams who had bowed just before the kick-off of the match , like during all the meetings of the weekend.
Matt Richie, with a beautiful strike from 23 meters (2-0, 69th), and the Brazilian Joelinton (3-0, 78th), for his first goal at Saint-James Park, unfortunately without fans to cheer him, have gave a great scale to this success which was not far from the best performance of black and white since the start of the season.
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