Manchester City have booked a place in next season’s Champions League as Manuel Pellegrini’s time at the club ended with a draw at Swansea, and it was Nigeria’s Kelechi Iheanacho whose goal made it possible for City to join the elite league of European football next season.
City looked good for an away win at Swansea until an Andre Ayew’s deflected free-kick cancelled out Kelechi Iheanacho’s close-range opener.
The draw leaves them three points ahead of Manchester United, whose final game, against Bournemouth, was abandoned due to a bomb scare which later turned out to be a training device left behind by a private company.
The shocking discovery of the device which was later destroyed ensured that the match between Manchester United and Bournemouth was called off. Bomb disposal officers were called in and they carried out a controlled explosion. Should Manchester United have won the match they would be on the same points with their City rivals but who has a far more superior goals difference. United would need a 19-0 win over the Bournemouth to take fourth place.
Iheanacho, described by the BBC as the “on-field embodiment of a potentially exciting future” showed his sharpness in front of goals by poking home a rebounding ball from close range early in the game.
It was Iheanacho’s 14th goal of the season and his eighth from his first 12 shots on target in the Premier League. He has been rated as the best striker in Europe this reason on a ratio of time-to-goal ahead of Suarez, Messi, Neymar and Christiano Ronaldo.
Elsewhere at the Emirates, Arsenal put up a quality performance to subdue relegated Aston Villa 4-0 to push bitter rivals Tottenham to third place after the latter were humiliated 5-1 by yet another relegated team – Newcastle United.
