Photo: AFP
Brighton & Hove Albion crushed a woeful Wolverhampton Wanderers 6-0 in the Premier League on Sunday, with Deniz Undav, Pascal Gross and Danny Welbeck all scoring two goals each to earn the Seagulls their biggest top-flight victory.
The win was a welcome boost for manager Roberto de Zerbi after a week in which his team were beaten on penalties by Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-finals and lost 3-1 to struggling Nottingham Forest in the league.
"We suffered a lot in the last two games," the Brighton manager told the BBC.
"This answer today was fantastic. Today was my best game as a coach."
Four of the goals came in a frenetic first half, with Undav opening the scoring in the sixth minute when he stuck out his left foot to guide Welbeck's cheeky backheel past Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa.
Gross doubled the home team's lead seven minutes later, sidefooting Julio Enciso's cross into the roof of the net, and volleyed home Brighton's third in the 26th from another assist by Enciso.
Welbeck killed off any hopes of a Wolves comeback when he outjumped Maximilian Kilman at the back post to head home Pervis Estupinan's cross in the 39th minute and scored again three minutes after halftime from just outside the box.
Brighton got their sixth in the 66th after Sa played a poor ball to Matheus Nunes, who crumbled under pressure from Undav, allowing the German to steal the ball and chip the keeper to seal Wolves' heaviest defeat of the season.
Victory catapulted Brighton back firmly into the race for Europe, with De Zerbi's side staying eighth but cutting the gap to seventh-placed Liverpool to a point with a game in hand.
Brentford beat Nottingham Forest
Brentford deepened Nottingham Forest's relegation worries with a 2-1 home win after Ivan Toney and Josh Dasilva scored late second-half goals to leave the visitors a point above the drop zone.
The result leaves Forest in 17th with 30 points, above Leicester City in 18th and 19th-placed Everton (28 points) who play each other on Monday. Brentford are ninth with 50 points.
With the score tied at 1-1, Dasilva settled the contest in the 93rd minute with a shot from a tight angle to seal the three points and keep their slim hopes of qualifying for Europe alive.
It was Brentford who applied the early pressure as Forest keeper Keylor Navas and his defensive line stood firm to deny the home side who struggled in the final third in the first half.
Forest were under the cosh but midfielder Danilo scored for the visitors with the last kick of the half from six yards out after latching on to a heavily deflected shot from Morgan Gibbs-White.
Crystal Palace beat West Ham
Crystal Palace scored three rapid-fire goals in the first half and then held on to beat West Ham United 4-3 in a full-throttle thriller, lifting them further away from the relegation zone.
The win meant Palace leap-frogged Chelsea into 11th place in the table on 40 points after 34 games, although Chelsea have two games in hand.
Crystal Palace have four wins, a draw and one loss in their six matches since Hodgson was appointed manager in mid-March, and the new boss dared to suggest his team are out of relegation danger, although on paper it is still possible.
Jordan Ayew, Wilfried Zaha and Jeffrey Schlupp netted for Roy Hodgson's Eagles in a frenzied 15-minute stretch in the first half, and Eberechi Eze slotted a penalty past Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski in the second.
Tomas Soucek, Michail Antonio and Nayef Aguerd scored for David Moyes' men in the battle of London rivals.
Technical trouble at the turnstiles caused a 15-minute delay to kick-off but the end-to-end action at a sun-drenched Selhurst Park was well worth the wait with five goals in the first half alone.
West Ham dropped to 15th, five points clear of the drop zone with five games remaining.
- Reuters