London (AFP)

Manchester United provisionally grabbed fourth place in the Premier League by crushing the relegated Bournemouth (5-2) on Saturday for day 33, but MU remains three points behind the podium and Leicester, who defeated Crystal Palace (3- 0).

. Unstoppable Manchester United

If they were a little scared at the start of each period, the Red Devils finally beat Bournemouth (5-2) quite easily thanks to their still impressive offensive armada.

With 55 points, United passes Chelsea who receives Watford (17th) in the evening. Bournemouth, which had regained its fighting spirit, remains 19th and relegated to a length of maintenance, but the teams preceding it have not yet played.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will not be able to save praise for Mason Greenwood, author of a double (1-1, 29th and 4-2, 54th). Nor for Bruno Fernandes, assists on the first goal of Greenwood and scorer on direct free kick (5-2, 59th). Or for the wonderful goal of Anthony Martial, a shot wrapped in the opposite skylight (3-1, 45th + 2).

Marcus Rashford also went there with his goal, transforming a penalty to give the advantage to United (2-1, 35th).

But he will undoubtedly have much less sweet words to speak of the two catastrophic beginnings of his team.

Bournemouth had opened the scoring in the quarter of an hour of play, Junior Stanislas inflicting a small bridge on Harry Maguire before deceiving David De Gea, taking advantage of the fact that the Spanish goalkeeper did not cover his first post, when the angle was very closed (0-1, 16th).

The unfortunate reflex of Eric Bailly who stretched out his arm to control, in his area, a poorly controlled backhand pass from a teammate, at the start of the second period, will no doubt also remain across his throat.

Joshua King was not asked to transform him and briefly bring his team to 3-2 (49th), before a tie was refused to Arnaut Danjuma for an offside a few seconds later.

But the main thing for Manchester remains these three points and the ongoing series of 16 undefeated matches, including 12 victories, which puts the Champions League at hand.

. Leicester bounces

Leicester got back on track by beating Crystal Palace (3-0) with a double from Jamie Vardy who unlocked his counter.

Leicester are sure to finish the day in third place, which was threatened by Chelsea.

In trouble since the resumption of the championship with two points taken in just three days, the men of Brendan Rodgers showed seriousness and application, completely dominating the match, but they had to wait until the second period to make the difference.

A strike from the side James Justin in the first period (15th) could make them fear being cursed, but Kelechi Iheanacho ended up finding the flaw at the start of the second act, at the reception of a center by Youri Tielemans (49th) .

Jamie Vardy, who had not yet scored since the season started, regained the top scoring standings with a double, scoring his 20th and 21st goals of the season and especially his 100th and 101st goals in the Premier League.

The Foxes do not intend to give up their virtual place in C1, which they occupied practically throughout the season.

© 2020 AFP