Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City in goals rain

. Iwobi, Mikel shine

BY JOE APU

THE English Premier League rained thunderous­ly with goals on Saturday as Arsenal moved up third place on ladder to keep their title hopes alive fol­lowing their 4-0 win over Watford. While Arsenal’s win was at the Emirates stadium, Chelsea and Man­chester City went away to Aston Villa and AFC Bour­nemouth to also record 4-0 wins respectively.

Arsenal’s new found love Alex Iwobi quickly put the disappointment of Nigeria failing to qualify for the AFCON 2017 behind him as he was instrumental to his team’s first goal and scored the second.

The performances of the young Nigeria interna­tional in recent weeks has reignited Arsenal’s season and given them renewed hope of catching Leicester and Tottenham

Alex Iwobi, who was substituted with 17 min­utes to play to a standing ovation had scored, set another goal up and hit the crossbar for good measure and leaving his compatriot Odion Igahalo still strug­gling to find his scoring form.

John Mikel Obi and his Chelsea gang were riotous as they easily beat Aston Villa that looked ill-equipped for the grind on English football’s second tier and desperately in need of manager to take a firm grip.

There is an increasing gap between Villa’s fans and the players, who in various instances were booed coming on, booed touching the ball, and booed trudging off the pitch.

Manchester City on the other hand have clearly not given up on the Premier League title race just yet and they made that point spectacularly at the ex­pense of Bournemouth.

Sergio Aguero scored his ninth goal in 10 league games and is becoming a growing contender for the Golden Boot. That was his 17th of the season and he is not far behind Harry Kane. In the last seven games of last season he scored nine. Kevin De Bruyne’s return from two months out with a knee injury coincided with a phenomenal display of football from Manuel Pel­legrini’s side and he got on the scoresheet too, after Fernando had volleyed an early lead. Substitute Alex­sander Kolarov completed a punishing display in stoppage time.