EPL Roundup: Managers sent off in Spurs-Seagulls clash; Haaland hits 30

LONDON (AP) — Harry Kane scored his 23rd English Premier League goal to earn Tottenham a 2-1 win over top-four rival Brighton on Saturday in a match that saw both managers sent off after a touchline scuffle.

Tottenham's Cristian Stellini and Brighton's Roberto De Zerbi — both Italians — were dismissed from the dugouts and escorted down the tunnel by the time Kane ran onto a cutback from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and found the corner of the net with a fierce drive in the 79th minute.

Kane, England's captain, has scored in six straight games for club and country, and is still in striking distance of Manchester City's Erling Haaland in the race to be top scorer in the league.

Son Heung-min gave Tottenham the lead in the 10th minute with a curler into the top corner for his 100th league goal and Lewis Dunk equalized with a header from a corner in the 34th.

Kaoru Mitoma and Alexis Mac Allister had goals disallowed for Brighton for handball.

Tottenham stayed in fifth place, three points behind both third-placed Newcastle and fourth-placed Manchester United having played one game more.

De Zerbi and Stellini were involved in a heated exchange before kickoff, with De Zerbi seen pointing animatedly at his fellow Italian. Then, during the match, there was a melee between both sets of coaches and, although Stellini stayed out of the action, he was sent off for failing to keep his staff under control.

De Zerbi got a red card for being in the thick of it

“I am used always to respecting everyone inside of the pitch and outside of the pitch,” De Zerbi said, while declining to reveal the exact reason for his irritation with Stellini.

“I don’t like it when people don’t respect me, but there are normal situations in football. It is personal things, no? I always respect everyone, especially the coaches. And I can answer for me, not for him. It was a personal situation and I told him what was my opinion, my idea."

Stellini, who is in interim control of Tottenham following the firing of Antonio Conte last weekend, said “What happens on the pitch, stays on the pitch.

“In that moment for me, I was focused on the players," he said. "I wanted to speak to the players and I lose my focus on the bench.

"This is the rule. I have to respect the rule, but I think also if you look at what happened, I was polite and calm.”

Manchester City 4, Southampton 1

In Southampton, Erling Haaland took his tally of English Premier League goals in his first season with City to 30 with a double in a 4-1 victory that kept the pressure on Arsenal in the title race on Saturday.

His first goal, a close-range header, couldn't have been easier. His second simply took the breath away.

After meeting Jack Grealish's cross with that stunning volley, Haaland sat on the ground and celebrated with a zen pose. Before long, he was laughing at the brilliance of his own goal — his 44th in all competitions for City this season.

City could still have 18 more matches to play if it goes all the way in the FA Cup and Champions League. Fifty goals looks inevitable for Haaland.

City, meanwhile, is on one of those end-of-season winning runs that has become its trademark. Make that eight straight victories in all competitions — the team's best streak of the season — to really put the pressure on Arsenal, which takes a five-point lead into its match at Liverpool on Sunday.

Grealish and Julian Alvarez scored City's other goals on the south coast.

Newcastle 2, Brentford 1

Also in London, Alexander Isak kept Newcastle’s Champions League charge on track with the winner in a 2-1 victory at Brentford.

The Sweden striker hit his eighth goal in 13 league appearances as the Magpies came from a goal down to make it five wins in a row and stay in third place.

A high-tempo match in west London also featured a collector’s item in the shape of a failure from the penalty spot by Ivan Toney. The England striker also slotted a spot kick and had a goal disallowed in an eventful first half.

Newcastle stayed in third place, ahead of Manchester United on goal difference and three points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham, which has played a game more than its two rivals.

Toney thought he fired Brentford ahead in the seventh minute after Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope clawed out a header from Pontus Jansson. Toney snaffled the rebound but a VAR check showed he was just offside when Jansson headed the ball.

The penalty saga began when Kevin Schade brought down a high ball superbly before racing past Dan Burn and into the area, where he was unceremoniously halted by Sven Botman.

But Toney’s effort was uncharacteristically weak and Pope saved low to his left to join Adam Davies of Barnsley in 2018 — when Toney was at Peterborough — in an exclusive club of goalkeepers to keep out a penalty from the striker.

Four-and-a-half years and 24 successful penalties later — including 22 out of 22 for Brentford — Toney's run of successful spot kicks come to an end.

However, he is nothing if not confident about his ability from the spot, and normal service was resumed in first-half stoppage time after Isak caught Rico Henry.

Referee Chris Kavanagh was instructed by the VAR to check the pitchside monitor and, inevitably, he awarded another penalty.

Toney dispatched it to Pope’s left again but this time high enough to beat his dive.

Newcastle was poor in the first half but improved after the introduction of Callum Wilson and Anthony Gordon, and equalized in the 54th minute when Kieran Trippier found Joelinton inside the box.

Six minutes later, Wilson — unfortunate not to start after his double at West Ham midweek — squared for Isak to lash a superb effort from the edge of the box into the top corner.

Raya made a fine block to deny Isak a second before Wilson prodded the ball home from a corner, only for another VAR review to chalk it off for handball after the striker controlled the ball with the top of his arm.

Pope kept out Ethan Pinnock’s late header and Toney headed over in stoppage time as Brentford slipped to only a second home

West Ham 1, Fulham 0

Also in London, West Ham celebrated a first away win since August in the English Premier League thanks to a Fulham own goal on Saturday.

The Hammers were thrashed by Newcastle 5-1 midweek but recovered to win 1-0 at Craven Cottage in a low-quality affair settled by Harrison Reed’s unfortunate first-half moment.

Not since a victory at Aston Villa in their second away game had the travelling West Ham fans been able to celebrate three points — although history was on their side here, having won more away fixtures against Fulham than any other league team.

Those supporters, though, still lambasted manager David Moyes with chants of “You don't know what you’re doing,” during the second half.

Victory lifted West Ham three points above the drop zone.

Fulham has lost four league games in a row as hopes of European qualification continue to drift.

Coach Marco Silva, watching from high up in Craven Cottage's new Riverside Stand after being hit with a two-game ban following his red card at Manchester United, will be concerned about the slide especially with talisman Aleksandar Mitrovic yet to serve six games of his eight-match ban from the same encounter.

The only goal of a tame London derby came when Reed turned a low Jarrod Bowen cross into his own goal at the midway point of the first half.

Aston Villa 2, Notts Forest 0

In Birmingham, Aston Villa put on a show for its royal visitors in a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest that lifted the team into sixth place in the English Premier League on Saturday.

Prince William, who is known to be a Villa fan, attended with his oldest child, Prince George, and saw Ollie Watkins continue his hot streak with a stoppage-time goal to seal victory.

It was Watkins' ninth goal in his last 11 games, adding to Bertrand Traore's strike early in the second half.

Villa has won six of its last seven matches and is in real contention for European qualification, with the Europa League firmly in the sights of manager Unai Emery — a serial winner of the competition with Sevilla and Villarreal.

Emery mustn't have thought this was possible when he took over from Steven Gerrard in November. Villa is on course for their best finish since 2010.

For Forest, an eighth game without a win returned the team to the bottom three for the first time since January. Unless something drastic changes in the next few weeks, it looks almost certain to return to the Championship.

Whether that drastic change is the removal of Cooper remains to be seen. Although owner Evangelos Marinakis gave his manager public backing this week, his statement was pointed by saying he expected results and performances to “improve immediately."

Although Forest was not outplayed at Villa Park, the team carried so little threat and, unsurprising for a team which has only five away goals, never looked like getting back in the game.

With Manchester United, Liverpool and Brighton to play in its next three fixtures, Forest's chances of survival look bleak.

Wolves 1, Chelsea 0

In Wolverhampton, Frank Lampard made a disappointing start to his second spell in charge of Chelsea when they lost at relegation-threatened Wolves 1-0.

Matheus Nunes' spectacular angled strike in the 31st minute earned Wolves a win at Molineux that pushed them four points clear of the bottom three.

Lampard, a Chelsea playing great and its manager from 2019-21, was brought in this week on an interim basis in the hope that his knowledge of the club can see it through to a successful end to the season while the board seeks a full-time replacement for the fired Graham Potter.

Chelsea looked no different under Lampard, lacking a threat up front just as it did in the final days of Potter. It's now three straight league games without a goal.

Lampard's priority, though, is the Champions League where Chelsea faces defending champion Real Madrid in the first leg of the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Chelsea looks to have no chance of qualifying for the Champions League through its placing in the Premier League. The team is in 11th place and 17 points off the top four.

Nunes' goal came after the ball bounced out to him on the right side of the area off the head of a Chelsea defender. The Portugal midfielder hit it first time into the far corner.

The match was marred by homophobic chanting by some Wolves fans, which was condemned by the Premier League and Chelsea.

“Chelsea will continue to work closely with Chelsea Pride and the broader football community to eradicate these vile chants from our game,” Chelsea said in a statement.