Viktor Gyokeres scored in the 89th minute and 16-year-old Max Dowman dribbled from halfway for the second goal as Arsenal beat Everton 2-0 to stay in control of the Premier League title race on Saturday.
It dealt a psychological blow to second-place Manchester City, which headed into the late game at West Ham trailing Arsenal by 10 points.
A breathtaking finish at Emirates Stadium saw Dowman, an English soccer prodigy who is still at school, dribble
around an Everton player inside his own half and race clear to tap into an empty net. Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford was stranded upfield having gone up for a corner.
It was Dowman’s first goal in his third Premier League appearance and he became the competition's youngest ever scorer.
Arsenal toiled before Gyokeres’ late intervention, which came when a cross by Dowman from the right was missed by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, struck the midriff of Arsenal substitute Piero Hincapie and bounced across the goalmouth. Gyokeres applied the finishing touch from close range.
City has two games in hand over Arsenal, which was last English champion in 2004, in its bid to reclaim the title.
Across London, Chelsea lost 1-0 to Newcastle thanks to an 18th-minute goal by Anthony Gordon.
Chelsea stayed in fifth place but could be overtaken by Liverpool, which hosts struggling Tottenham on Sunday.
Burnley is running out of time and hope in the Premier League.
A 0-0 home draw with Bournemouth on Saturday left next-to-last Burnley — one of the many U.S.-owned teams in England’s top division — eight points from safety with just eight games remaining this season and facing an immediate return to the Championship.
Burnley has won just four of its 30 league games.
Sunderland, another promoted team, appears to be safe from relegation but is limping toward the end of the season after a third straight home loss – this time to Brighton 1-0.
The only goal was a bizarre one, with Yankuba Minteh’s mis-hit cross from the byline somehow squeezing in at the near post in the 58th minute at the Stadium of Light.
Sunderland hadn’t lost at home until a defeat to Liverpool on Feb. 11. Since then, it has lost to Fulham and now Brighton.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
