. Bitter farewell for Firmino

Brazilian Roberto Firmino, a member of Liverpool's magical triplet with Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, had a bitter last outing at Anfield despite equalising against Aston Villa.

Entered in the 72nd minute, in place of Luis Diaz, "Bobby" had thrown himself at the first post to cut a center from outside Salah a minute from the end of regulation time to put the two teams back to equal (1-1, 89th).

But with 66 points and a game to play, Liverpool, 5th, will need a miracle to move ahead of Manchester United (4th) or Newcastle (3rd), who have three more units and one game less.

The draw was not undeserved for Unai Emery's men who pass 7th and are virtually qualified for the Europa League Conference.

While the Reds remained on a seven-game winning streak, Jürgen Klopp's absence from the bench, due to his suspension for questioning a referee's objectivity, may have hurt the Reds.

Villa had benefited from a penalty in the 22nd minute, but Ollie Watkins, did not find the frame, his 5th failure out of 9 attempts in this exercise.

Five minutes later, the Birmingham club, however, found the fault on a beautiful recovery of Jacob Ramsey at the second post (0-1, 27th) a result that would have eliminated Liverpool from the race for C1.

In the 55th minute, an equaliser was denied to Cody Gakpo for an offside by Virgil van Dijk at the start of the action, but the locals eventually came back, softening a little nostalgia at the departures also of faithful servants such as James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Naby Keita.

. Manchester United reach goal

A superb return from Casemiro allowed the Red Devils to get even closer to C1.

© Adrian DENNIS /

With 69 points, they only need one unit to stamp their ticket and they have two home games, against Chelsea and Fulham, two teams that play nothing, to get it.

Against Bournemouth, who have nothing to hope for or fear from the end of the season either, Erik Ten Hag's men took the lead in the 9th minute, Casemiro showing an admirable reflex to convert a ladle of Christian Eriksen deflected by an opponent (0-1, 9th).

They then rather controlled their game even if two beautiful saves from David De Gea, assured of finishing "Golden Glove" with his 17 games without conceding a goal this season, saved them the correction.

. Tottenham risk losing everything

Virtual qualification for the Champions League in early April, Tottenham is likely not to be European at the end of the season after its defeat (3-1) at home against Brentford.

Spurs were overtaken by Villa and the 8th place they currently occupy is the first that does not offer continental qualification.

The first half, against a sleeping Bees, was one of the best in a long time, with Harry Kane opening the scoring with an indirect free-kick in the 8th minute.

© Glyn KIRK /

It was his 28th goal of the season, goals scored in 25 different matches, an unprecedented performance.

Son Heung-min (11th), Emerson Royal (24th), Arnaut Danjuma (43rd) and Dejan Kulusevski (45+4) had opportunities to double the bet.

But on the way back from the locker room, Bryan Mbeumo turned the game around by scoring in the 50th and 60th minutes, before an assist for Yoann Wissa in the 88th.

The defeat of their executive director, Daniel Levy, in the stands, at the very end of the match, spoke volumes about the disarray of a club without a sporting director and without a coach designated for next season.

© 2023 AFP