LONDON: Burnley and Queens Park Rangers’ Premier League survival hopes were left hanging by a thread after defeats and unfavourable results elsewhere on Saturday left them rooted to the foot of the table.

Bottom club Burnley, promoted last season, lost 1-0 at West Ham United, who prevailed through a 24th-minute Mark Noble penalty after visiting defender Michael Duff had been sent off for a foul on Cheikhou Kouyate.

Defeat means Sean Dyche’s side, who are eight points adrift of Leicester City in 17th, need to win their remaining three games and have favourable results elsewhere to avoid a swift return to the Championship.

Queens Park Rangers, one point and place above in 19th, also face a tough task to preserve their top flight status after they lost 2-1 at Liverpool following goals from Philippe Coutinho and Steven Gerrard.

The game at Anfield took place against a sombre backdrop, with players from both teams sporting black armbands in tribute to Rebecca Ellison, wife of QPR defender Rio Ferdinand, who died of breast cancer on Friday night.

Resurgent Leicester recorded their fifth win from six Premier League matches thanks to Leonardo Ulloa’s brace in a 3-0 victory against free-falling Newcastle United.

Leicester’s fifth win in six league games and took them to within a point of John Carver’s Newcastle, who have lost eighth consecutive league games.

Sunderland — in 18th place and with a game in hand — climbed to within one point of Leicester after they recorded a much needed 2-1 win against Southampton following Jordi Gomez’s brace of penalties.

Aston Villa bolstered their chances of avoiding the drop as Christian Benteke took his tally to 11 goals in nine games with a brace in a 3-2 win over Everton.

Tom Cleverley also scored for Villa, with Romelu Lukaku and Phil Jagielka hitting back for Everton, as Tim Sherwood’s side preserved their two-point cushion over the bottom three.

Elsewhere, Jefferson Montero and Ki Sung-yeung scored late goals as Swansea City won 2-0 at home to Stoke City, who had Marc Wilson sent off.

Earlier, Bournemouth were promoted to the Premier League for the first time as second-tier champions after Watford threw away the title in the final seconds of the Championship season.

Already guaranteed promotion, Watford led the table heading into Saturday’s finale and was beating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 until stoppage time when they conceded to draw 1-1.

That meant Bournemouth clinched the trophy by a single point by beating Charlton 3-0, only five years after the south-coast team were playing in the fourth tier.

There is another spot in the Premier League available to the playoff final winners. In the two-legged playoff semi-finals, Norwich City will play Ipswich Town in an east-coast derby and Middlesbrough will face Brentford.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2015

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