Foden brightens City’s title chances

Brighton, April 26

Manchester City chalked up another big win in their pursuit of an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League title, with Phil Foden continuing his career-best scoring season with two goals in a 4-0 thrashing of Brighton & Hove Albion on Thursday.

Foden’s first-half double came between goals by Kevin De Bruyne and Julian Alvarez as City extended their unbeaten run in the league to 18 games and trimmed the gap on leaders Arsenal to one point. Liverpool are two points further back in third after their title chances were damaged by a 0-2 loss at Everton on Wednesday.

City have five games remaining — one more than Arsenal and Liverpool — and, on current form, are showing no signs of slipping up in the final stretch that still contains trips to Nottingham Forest, Fulham and Tottenham as well as home matches against Wolverhampton and West Ham.

Win all five of those games and City are the champions again. No team has ever won four successive top-flight titles in the history of English football. — AP