City keep title hopes alive

Manchester City bounced back from their FA Cup and Champions League exits to win 2-0 at Hull City despite playing for 80 minutes with 10 men to keep alive their Premier League title hopes on Saturday.

 

City, who climbed to second in the table, had captain Vincent Kompany sent off after 10 minutes for hauling down striker Nikica Jelavic on the edge of his own box.

 

They then took the lead two minutes later through David Silva before Edin Dzeko added the second in the 90th minute.

 

Silva scored with a superbly executed curling shot in the 12th minute after a delicate pass from Yaya Toure and although Hull battled gamely, City made light of their one-man disadvantage and stretched their unbeaten away run in the league to eight games.

 

Dzeko wrapped up the points from point blank range after a pass from Silva.

 

City coach Manuel Pellegrini was very happy with his team's response after what he called "a very difficult week".

 

"We have just lost to Wigan and Barcelona so we needed to win today and playing with one player less for 80 minutes was very difficult," he said.

 

"But we gave a very good performance. We defended well with and without the ball and created a lot of scoring chances and it was a very professional response. We played very well."

 

Hull, who have now lost their last three home matches, ended the match in 13th place on 30 points before the afternoon fixtures.

 

The win lifted City in to second place in the table on 60 points, six behind leaders Chelsea who play away at Aston Villa in the day's late kickoff.

 

Liverpool and Arsenal, who play Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur respectively on Sunday,  slipped back to third and fourth with 59 points - at least until they are in action on Sunday.

 

At the other end Fulham stayed bottom but won for the first time since New Year's Day and for the first time since Felix Magath became coach.

 

They beat Newcastle United, without suspended manager Alan Pardew in the stadium, 1-0 at Craven Cottage with a second-half winner from Ashkan Dejagah.

 

Three of the four relegation-threatened teams immediately above them avoided defeat.

Crystal Palace, slipped a place to 17th despite drawing 0-0 at Sunderland, who moved up a spot to 18th.

 

West Bromwich Albion, without a win in their first seven matches under Spanish coach Pepe Mel, finally ended that sequence with a 2-1 come-from-behind win at Swansea City with goals from Stephane Sessegnon and Youssouf Mulumbu five minutes from time. They went up one place to 16th.

Cardiff City lost 2-1 at Everton, where Seamus Coleman scored the winner with almost the last kick of the game, and slipped back to 19th.

In the other two games Stoke City beat West Ham United 3-1 while two late goals could not save 15th placed Norwich City from a 4-2 defeat at Southampton.