West Ham vs Man City LIVE: Premier League result, final score and reaction as Riyad Mahrez misses late penalty
Follow all the action from the London Stadium as City aim to move within one point of the title by beating the Hammers
Manchester City head to the London Stadium this afternoon knowing victory over West Ham United will put them on the precipice of the Premier League title.
Pep Guardiola’s side are three points clear of Liverpool with just two games remaining after Kevin De Bruyne scored four goals against Wolves on Wednesday. Their mission is simple: get four points from their final two league games and they will be crowned champions.
West Ham are still reeling from their heartbreaking defeat in the Europa League semi-finals but the Hammers did recover with a thumping win over Norwich last weekend - a first victory in five Premier League matches.
David Moyes’s side still have plenty to play as they look to get back into Europe next term, with just three points separating them from sixth-placed Manchester United, who travel to Crystal Palace on the final day of the season.
Follow all the action from a crucial clash at the London Stadium below after the conclusion of Tottenham vs Burnley:
Tottenham 0-0 Burnley
4 mins: Kane finds a little pocket of space and tries to hook a ball into Davies but Burnley hook it clear. Then Kane picks it up on the left flank and fizzes a low cross into the arms of Pope.
Spurs enjoying all of the ball in these early stages - as you would have expected. Sessegnon fizzes a low cross into the middle which is hooked clear. Sanchez then tries his luck from distance but the shot is blocked.
Tottenham 0-0 Burnley
2 mins: A different atmosphere in this stadium to the one for the North London derby on Thursday evening. It’s a little more tranquil, so the players will need to get them up for this one.
Spurs begin knocking the ball around early on as Burnley settle into their back five and defensive block in front of it.
It’s going to be a challenge for Tottenham to break down Mike Jackson’s side today.
Tottenham 0-0 Burnley
1 min: KICK-OFF! Referee Kevin Friend blows his whistle and we are underway at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Tottenham vs Burnley
All ready to go at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It’s a seismic game at both ends of the table as the season rapidly approaches a crescendo finish.
Tottenham can move into fourth by avoiding defeat here today, but it’s really a win they need if they are to keep their Champions League hopes firmly alive.
Burnley can move three points clear of the relegation zone with a victory, but it’s a tall order.
Kick-off is moments away.
Antonio Conte’s masterclass on and off the pitch ramps up pressure on Arsenal in Champions League chase
After one of the great north London derby wins, Antonio Conte offered one of the great media performances.
He ruthlessly and relentlessly went for Mikel Arteta, in the same way he has made his Tottenham Hotspur team go after Arsenal. It wasn’t quite “I will love it if we beat them”, or even his own public exchange with Jose Mourinho, but let’s be fair. It was a vintage piece of Premier League pantomime, of the type that does bring genuine drama to the competition. This is what gives edge to the games. It was so extensive and so condescending a display it could well give rise to a proper managerial feud.
This was a sketch on how to weaponise a press conference.
Conte started by noting how much Mikel Arteta had been complaining about referees and other issues, only to repeatedly mention that himself.
The same message was repeated several times, in various different ways.
First: ”I think that Mikel Arteta is a really good coach. He’s being a really good coach. He’s just started to do this job and I think that I hear him complain a lot. I think that he needs to be focused more on his team and not to complain.”
Second: “Because he has just started his work and I think he has to be calm and to try to continue to work. Because he’s very good but to listen to a coach complain a lot of time is not good… I think that this is the advice if you want to accept the advice.
Third: “I don’t see what happened on the opposite side, but I repeat he’s a really good coach and I think he can become an important coach in the future. But in six months I have listened to him complain a lot, and I think that I repeat it’s only advice, nothing else – because he’s very good and it’s not good to complain a lot. Also because he has just started to do this job.”
Fourth: “If you remember he complained about the fixture. It is not good to complain.”
By then, of course, we’d got to the root of all this. Conte even had the audacity to say he could complain about many things after every game, given that is what many say he precisely does, and this was exactly what he was doing here. It wasn’t really “you don’t hear me complain”. You very much could – but there was at least an implicit acknowledgement here of what this was partly about.
Miguel Delaney on Spurs boss Antonio Conte and how he has piled the pressure on Arsenal:
Conte’s masterclass on and off the pitch ramps up pressure on Arsenal and Arteta
Spurs left their rivals in tatters by full-time but the manager had no intention of letting the final whistle end his own tactical plan
Son chasing Golden Boot
With Liverpool in FA Cup final action yesterday, Tottenham’s Son Heung-min has an opportunity to draw level or take the lead in the top scorers charts.
Mohamed Salah is on 22, Son is currently on 21 - that’s a third of all Spurs’ league goals this term.
He’s certainly the danger man and the in-form forward in the league right now.
Milestone match for Burnley’s Lowton
Matt Lowton has been in and out of the team this season for Burnley, but he has been a huge part of their top-flight survival plans - and indeed thriving plans at times - for several years.
It’s 200 games in Claret for him today and a 20th Premier League start of the season - he has fallen out of favour of late and this is only his fourth league start of 2022.
As it happens, he’s still only one assist away from being the club’s joint-top in that category for this season: he’s on two, with five players claiming three apiece!
Injury issues for Tottenham continue
Eric Dier might not have been the person most immediately thought of as crucial when Antonio Conte walked through the doors at Spurs, but it’s he who has established himself as the middle defender in the back three, most responsible for the organisation, constant clearances and - as it turns out - staying fit and available.
Romero’s absence from the back line makes it more important than ever for Dier to maintain his own consistency levels and he’ll have his hands full between Barnes’ strength and movement, and Cornet’s on-the-ball ability and speed, in the Burnley attack today.
Elsewhere, Reguilon, Doherty, Skipp and Tanganga are all unlikely to play again this term.
Tottenham’s chance to pile pressure on Arsenal
As for the home side, Tottenham have a massive opportunity today.
After that thumping win over Arsenal in the north London derby, three points on home soil will lift them above the Gunners and into fourth, with their rivals in action on Monday night away to Newcastle United.
Antonio Conte’s side have only won two of the last five in the league though, and consistency is everything at this moment of the season.
Transferring the pressure onto Mikel Arteta’s side to find a response would be a massive boost in the race for Champions League places.
Burnley’s relegation fight
Back to the here and now with the Clarets, it’s a pretty simple objective for them between now and the rapidly approaching end of the season: match whatever Leeds United do.
The clubs are level on 34 points right now but Burnley have both a game in hand and a superior goal difference, so as long as they bring in the same points tally across three games that Leeds can manage in two, they will play top-flight football again next season.
Of course, winning here and moving above Everton as well would go a long way toward offering breathing space! The Toffees are in action this afternoon against Brentford.
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