London (AFP)

Leicester and West Ham made an excellent operation on Sunday, on Matchday 25 of the Premier League, beating Aston Villa and Tottenham respectively by the same score (2-1), boosting their hopes for the Champions League.

- Leicester pass the 2nd

Pending the reception of Newcastle by Manchester United in the evening (20h00 / 19h00 GMT), Leicester seized second place in the standings ahead of the Red Devils by taming at home the underdog Aston Villa.

With 49 points, the Foxes are three steps ahead of United, but the latter have a favorable goal difference that will restore them to their rank of runner-up to Manchester City if they succeed.

The Citizens, who visit Arsenal at 5:30 p.m., still have a seven-unit mattress in mind.

A surprise team in the championship, Aston Villa seems to be gradually falling into line with its 8th place and 36 points, even if the Birmingham club have two games less.

Deprived of his master to play Jack Grealish and faced with a formation which has the best record outside the championship, with 30 points out of 39 possible taken away from his bases, Villa failed to correct an unfavorable start to the match .

The 2016 England champions have struck twice, by James Maddison (1-0, 19th) and Harvey Barnes (2-0, 23rd), under the eyes of England coach Gareth Southgate in full scouting for his selection of 23 players with a view to Euro-2020 this summer.

The former Lyonnais Bertrand Traoré gave his hopes back from the start of the second act (2-1, 48th), but Leicester showed great control to keep three precious points.

- West Ham in the magic square

By beating Tottenham (2-1), West Ham has seized the 4th place which sends in the Champions League next season.

The Hammers took advantage of Chelsea's draw at Southampton (1-1) on Saturday to take two steps ahead of the Blues and five over Liverpool and Everton.

Tottenham only point to 9th place with 36 points and will have a hard time snagging a ticket for the prestigious European competition, despite a late match.

With only one victory over the last six days, José Mourinho's players let go of a lot of ground, the fault of two starts of catastrophic periods.

It took less than 5 minutes for center-forward Michail Antonio to deceive Hugo Lloris on a center that the French goalkeeper had pushed back as best he could, in the middle of a very passive defense (1-0, 5th).

And in the 47th minute, it was Jesse Lingard, on loan from Manchester United, who threw himself with determination towards the opposing surface before triggering a very precise cross strike which found the small opposite net (2-0, 47th) .

Gareth Bale, entered at the break, shook an apathetic attack, offering Lucas Moura the reduction of the score from the head on a corner (2-1, 64th), before being very close to equalizing with a strike of 20 meters which touched the top of the crossbar (78th).

The post saved West Ham again at the start of added time, when Son Heung-min countered a clearance and the ball hit the upright to come out (90 + 2).

A draw that can leave Tottenham with regrets, but Spurs can only blame themselves for these half-played matches that could leave them with a lot of regrets at the end of the season.

© 2021 AFP