BRIGHTON, England (AP) — Manchester United must want this season to end now.
Make that five straight away losses for United in the English Premier League after a chastening 4-0 thrashing by Brighton on Saturday.
With just one game left this season — at Crystal Palace in two weeks — United has little to play for in a fifth straight season without a trophy.
If Erik ten Hag needed a reminder of the mess he is inheriting when the current Ajax coach takes over at Old Trafford in the offseason, it was this embarrassing performance at Amex Stadium.
Moises Caicedo and Marc Cucurella scored their first goals in English soccer — Cucurella was reduced to tears after slamming home his shot in the 49th — before strikes by Pascal Gross and Leandro Trossard by the hour mark.
In United's previous four away games in the league, it lost at Arsenal 3-1, at Liverpool 4-0, at Everton 1-0 and at Manchester City 4-1.
United is in sixth place, five points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, and cannot finish in the Champions League qualification spots.
Chelsea collapses to draw in front of new ownership
LONDON (AP) — Chelsea’s prospective new ownership watched Romelu Lukaku score his first English Premier League goals in 2022 before the team collapsed to 2-2 against Wolverhampton on Saturday, leaving work still to do to wrap up Champions League qualification.
Lukaku netted twice in a two-minute span early in the second half in a rare start in the league for the Belgium striker. Lukaku has struggled in the first season of his second spell at Chelsea after being the club’s headline summer signing at a record fee of $135 million.
Among those inside Stamford Bridge to see his first league goal since Dec. 29 was Todd Boehly, the part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers who is fronting a consortium that has agreed on buyout terms for the 2.5 billion-pound ($3.1 billion) purchase of Chelsea — the most lucrative ever for a sports team worldwide. The deal was announced hours before kickoff, meaning there was the feel of something of a new era inside the ground.
Chelsea still has to finish off a season that should end with the club back in the Champions League, but that is not certain.
Goals by Francisco Trincao, in the 79th, and Conor Coady, a header in the seventh minute of stoppage time from virtually the last touch of the game, left Thomas Tuchel’s third-placed team four points of fourth-placed Arsenal, which meets Leeds on Sunday.
Tottenham is two points further back in fifth.
Chelsea has three league games left, along with the FA Cup final against Liverpool.
The Premier League must still approve the consortium as the new ownership and the British government has to sign off under the terms of the license that allows Chelsea to continue operating as a business through May 31 while being one of the frozen assets of Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch who was forced to offload the club because of the war in Ukraine.
And where it was once Abramovich -- the owner for 19 years -- celebrating Chelsea’s goals, now it was Boehly standing up to applaud Lukaku.
He has five goals since his last league goal -- all in various cup competitions -- but has mostly had to settle for a place on the bench in recent weeks, behind Kai Havertz.
With Jorginho injured, Lukaku ended up on penalty duties and rolled his into the corner in the 55th after he was tripped by Romain Saiss in a seemingly innocuous clash near the byline and just inside the area.
His second goal was more impressive after being fed by Christian Pulisic following a poor pass out from the back by Conor Coady.
Lukaku picked his spot from just outside the area and curled a right-footed shot inside the post.
Chelsea controlled the match in the first half but was disallowed goals by Timo Werner and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Hodgson's Watford relegated after losing at Crystal Palace
LONDON (AP) — Watford became the second team to be relegated from the English Premier League after losing at Crystal Palace 1-0 on Saturday.
Even if Roy Hodgson's team won at Selhurst Park, it was still highly likely to go down. But survival was no longer mathematically possible after Wilfried Zaha's match-clinching penalty in the 30th minute.
The 74-year-old Hodgson will leave Watford having failed in his short-term mission to prevent the club making an immediate return to the Championship.
The former England manager was hired in January after the club dropped into the bottom three and it is in next-to-last place, 12 points from safety with only three games remaining.
Last-placed Norwich's relegation was sealed last weekend.
Burnley's survival hopes damaged by losing to Villa
BURNLEY, England (AP) — Burnley's relegation woes deepened after losing to Aston Villa 3-1 in the English Premier League on Saturday for the team's first defeat under interim manager Mike Jackson.
Steven Gerrard's Villa did both Everton and Leeds a big favor by ripping Burnley apart. Emi Buendia made the most of only his second start since February with a goal and an assist after coming in for the dropped Philippe Coutinho.
Danny Ings scored against his old team for a fourth goal in four matches against Burnley, and Ollie Watkins applied the killer blow.
Substitute Maxwel Cornet thumped home a stoppage-time consolation goal for Burnley but the damage was already done, perhaps doubly so with key defender James Tarkowski hobbling off in the second half.
Defeat means Burnley could end the weekend back in the bottom three if Leeds and Everton pick up points from tough fixtures away to Arsenal and Leicester, respectively, on Sunday.
Everton is in third-to-past place, two points behind Burnley and Leeds in the tight relegation scrap.
Jackson took an unlikely 10 points from a possible 12 since replacing the fired Sean Dyche last month. But a fourth straight victory, which would have matched Dyche’s tally all season, proved well beyond his side as Villa was clinical in front of goal a week after sending Norwich down with a 2-0 win over the last-placed team.
In a week where it emerged relegation would mean Burnley’s ownership must immediately repay a “significant” proportion of a 65 million pound ($80 million) loan taken out during its takeover in December 2020, this was a result to concentrate minds at Turf Moor after a superb few weeks under Jackson.
With Coutinho having made it six games without a goal or an assist last weekend, Gerrard handed Buendia a start as one of four changes to his side, and the Argentine needed a little over half an hour to register one of each.
Ings had already threatened once, curling wide after cutting in from the left, but made no mistake when Buendia’s pass split Burnley’s center halves with seven minutes gone to allow him a simple finish.
Villa doubled the lead in the 31st minute after Burnley failed to deal with a deep cross. Watkins and Ings worked the ball to Lucas Digne, whose pull-back to the penalty spot found Buendia and his side-footed shot went in with the help of a deflection off Tarkowski.
Things got worse after the break for Burnley when Tarkowski hobbled off to be replaced by Kevin Long, and the defence was left exposed as Watkins killed the hosts off only seven minutes into the second half.
John McGinn had space to send in a cross and Watkins was afforded the freedom of the penalty area to head past the stranded Pope, sealing a win which lifted Villa to 11th.
Though Cornet rounded Martinez to lash home a consolation strike, this was an ominous defeat given the Clarets must go to Villa Park in 12 days for one of the three matches left in which they can secure their Premier League future.
Brentford beats Southampton to boost hopes for top-10
LONDON (AP) — Brentford scored two early goals in a 3-0 victory over Southampton on Saturday to boost the club’s hopes of a top-half finish in its first season in the English Premier League.
Pontus Jansson and Yoane Wissa scored within a minute of each other as Brentford moved to within a point of 10th-placed Brighton, which hosted Manchester United late Saturday.
Ivan Toney set up the first goal in the 13th minute, collecting a corner and finding Jansson inside the 6-yard box for an easy finish. Then Wissa picked up a loose ball after teammate Christian Eriksen was knocked down, and shot low into the right corner of the net from just outside the box.
Kristoffer Ajer extended the lead with his first goal for Brentford when he beat a defender and shot between the legs of goalkeeper Fraser Forster in the 79th minute at Brentford Community Stadium in west London.
It was the third loss in the past four games for 15th-placed Southampton.
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