Liverpool 3-2 Spurs
Mario Balotelli scored his first Premier League goal for Liverpool as they beat Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 in an end-to-end affair at Anfield on Tuesday.
The visiting Spurs twice came back on level terms with the Reds before the Italian substitute turned in an Adam Lallana low cross seven minutes to the dead.
Lazar Markovic placed Liverpool ahead early on but the on-form Harry Kane restored parity four minutes to the half-time whistle, burying an Erik Lamela clever ball beyond Simon Mignolet from 12 yards- his 23rd goal of the season and 13th in the Premier League.
Steven Gerrard’s penalty restored Liverpool’s one-goal advantage just after the restart after Danny Rose had tripped Sturridge but Moussa Dembele leveled again before a Balotelli match-winner sealed a vital three point and ended his English league goal drought since scoring for Manchester City against Wigan in November 2012.
The result means Liverpool now trail the Whites by just a point in the race for a top 4 finish. Mauricio Pochettino’s side are three points adrift of fourth-placed Arsenal.
Arsenal 2-1 Leicester
Arsenal moved above Manchester United into fourth place following their 2-1 home win against struggling Leicester City.
Laurient Koscielny tapped in from close range to place Arsene Wenger’s men in the lead and when Mark Schwarzer later saved a Mesut Ozil shot Theo Walcott was in hand to volley home the rebound for Arsenal’s second.
German midfielder Mesut Ozil has now scored three goals and provided two assists in his last four matches after setting up both goals at the Emirates Stadium.
The Foxes pulled one back just after the hour mark with Andrej Kramaric grabbing his first English top-flight goal from a Riyad Mahrez delivery.
David Ospina was alert to deny Kramaric a chance of netting an unpleasant brace late on as the Gunners held on to three points and displace Man United in the top four. The defeat saw Leicester move further down in the bottom of the table.
Wenger lost substitute Aaron Ramsey to injury after just nine minutes of coming on for Walcott.
Hull 2-0 Aston Villa
Hull moved out of the relegation zone with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa who dropped into the demotion territory in place of the Tigers. Hull were 1-0 up after 22 minutes as Nikija Jelavic’s deflected shot looped into the net.
New signing Dame N’Doye doubled the hosts’ advantage after 74 minutes with his first goals since arriving in the winter from Lokomotiv Moscow in a reported £3m deal.
Sunderland 0-2 QPR
Managerless Queens Park Rangers (QPR) also climbed out of the relegation zone through Leroy Fer and Bobby Zamora strikes.
The R’s took the lead when Fer got in the end of Matty Phillip’s inch-perfect right-wing cross and thumping in a downward header.
Zamora sealed victory on the nick of the half-time break with a fine hooked effort which found the top corner of the Black Cats’ goal.
Sunderland, who have recorded just one win in their previous eight league matches, are only two points above the drop zone.