Man City back on top after thrashing Luton, Spurs crash

MANCHESTER : Champions Manchester City turned up the heat on their Premier League title rivals with a 5-1 home win over relegation-threatened Luton Town to move top of the table on Saturday.

With Arsenal and Liverpool both playing on Sunday, City marched above them with a rampant display to move to 73 points from 32 games. Arsenal (71) host fourth-placed Aston Villa while Liverpool (71) welcome Crystal Palace.

It was a statement win by City in their chase for an unprecedented fourth successive English title and more evidence that any team finishing above them will have to be near-perfect between now and the end of the season.

Tottenham Hotspur's hopes of finishing fourth and ensuring a Champions League berth were dealt a blow as they were hammered 4-0 at Newcastle United who moved into sixth place to boost their own European hopes.

At the bottom Brentford eased away from trouble with a 2-0 home win against Sheffield United for whom time is running out.

Nottingham Forest missed the chance to do the same as they were held to a 2-2 draw at home by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Forest are in 17th place, one point above third-from bottom Luton Town and six ahead of 19th-placed Burnley who drew 1-1 at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.

Manchester United are away at Bournemouth later on Saturday, trying to reclaim sixth place from Newcastle.

City needed only 65 seconds to go ahead against Luton with Erling Haaland's wayward volley smashing into the face of Luton's Daiki Hashioka and into the net.

Luton hung in grimly but Mateo Kovacic's strike made it 2-0 in the 64th minute before Haaland made it 3-0 from the penalty spot for his 20th league goal of the season.

Jeremy Doku and Josko Gvardiol were also on target for City, with Ross Barkley