Premier League round-up: Alexander Isak winner keeps Newcastle in Champions League frame

Brentford 1 Newcastle 2

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 Premier 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 missed penalty by Ivan Toney.

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The England striker also scored from the spot and had a goal disallowed in an eventful first half.

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Toney thought he had fired Brentford ahead in the seventh minute after 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 superbly brought down a high ball 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 an exclusive club of the only goalkeepers to keep out a penalty from the striker, when he was at Peterborough in 2018.

Four-and-a-half years and 24 successful penalties later – including 22 out of 22 for Brentford – Toney’s run had finally come to an end.

However, the 27-year-old 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.

Take two for Toney, and he dispatched it, to Pope’s left again but this time high enough to beat his dive.

Newcastle had been below-par in the first half but the introduction of Callum Wilson and Anthony Gordon pepped them up, and they equalised in the 54th minute when Kieran Trippier found Joelinton inside the box.

The Brazilian evaded a challenge from Ben Mee before drilling a low cross which was diverted in via the heel of Brentford goalkeeper David Raya.

Six minutes later Wilson, unfortunate not to start after his double at West Ham in 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 defeat of the season.

Tottenham 2 Brighton 1

Harry Kane’s 25th goal of the season helped earn Tottenham a crucial 2-1 win over Brighton in a fiery encounter between the top-four rivals.

Both bosses, Cristian Stellini and Roberto De Zerbi, were sent off in the second half on a day when tempers boiled over on a number of occasions in north London.

Son Heung-min’s opener, his 100th goal in the Premier League, put the hosts in front, but Brighton were slick in a first half in which Kaoru Mitoma saw an effort ruled out before Lewis Dunk did equalise.

Danny Welbeck thought he had put the Seagulls ahead after the break, but his effort was ruled out, allowing Kane to have the final say with a firm strike with 11 minutes left.

Victory failed to stop chants against chairman Daniel Levy or in support of former Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino, even though Spurs kept themselves in the top-four hunt.

Leicester 0 Bournemouth 1

Bournemouth plunged managerless Leicester into deeper trouble near the foot of the Premier League with a vital 1-0 victory that lifted Gary O’Neil’s side out of the bottom three and up to 15th.

As the Foxes were declining to comment on reports former Leeds boss Jesse Marsch was in “advanced talks” to fill the King Power vacancy left by Brendan Rodgers last week, the size of the job that might face the American was on open display as Leicester’s winless run reached eight league games.

James Maddison, the England midfielder at the forefront of those players Leicester might look to drag them out of trouble, was this time the one to put them in it, getting a back pass all wrong to allow Philip Billing to fire Bournemouth in front five minutes before the break.

Aston Villa 2 Nottingham Forest 0

Ollie Watkins’s hot streak continued as Aston Villa moved into the Premier League’s top six with a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest, whose manager Steve Cooper’s job remains under threat.

Watkins struck his ninth goal in the last 11 games at the death after Bertrand Traore had opened the scoring early in the second half.

It was Villa’s sixth win from the last seven matches and they are now in real contention for European qualification, with the Europa League firmly in their sights.

Boss Unai Emery must not have thought this was possible when he took over from Steven Gerrard in November, and they are on course for their best finish since 2009-10.

For Forest, an eighth game without a win sees them return to the bottom three for the first time since January, and unless something drastic changes in the next few weeks they look almost certain to return to the Championship.

Whether that drastic change is the removal of Cooper remains to be seen as, 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 they were not outplayed at Villa Park, the Reds carried so little threat and, unsurprisingly for a team who have only scored five away goals so far this season, never looked like getting back in the game.

And with Manchester United, Liverpool and Brighton to play in their next three fixtures, their chances of survival are now looking bleak.

Fulham 0 West Ham 1

A Harrison Reed own goal gave West Ham their first away Premier League victory since August as they saw off Fulham to ease their relegation worries.

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

Not since a victory at Aston Villa in their second away game of the season 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 Premier 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.

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

Head 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 still to serve six games of his eight-match ban from the same encounter.