Premier League: Gibbs-White hat-trick piles pressure on Spurs as Villa find amazing win
Captain scores three in 15 minutes for Forest while Villa win in added time
Morgan Gibbs-White scored a brilliant hat-trick as Nottingham Forest came from behind to beat Burnley 4-1 and leave Tottenham in massive relegation trouble in the Premier League.
Zian Flemming’s goal in first-half injury time gave Burnley a lead and Tottenham fans renewed hope.
But captain Gibbs-White scored three composed finishes to send Forest five points clear of Spurs and the bottom three with just five games remaining.
Burnley are 12 points from safety with 15 to play for and look all but done.
Only Erling Haaland and Igor Thiago (both 9) have scored more away goals in the Premier League this season than Flemming, with eight of his nine total goals in the competition coming on the road.
His lovely low finish gave them a surprise lead but Gibbs-White stepped up when his team needed him to twice drive in clinically from the left of the area.
On his 187th Premier League appearance, Gibbs-White scored a brace for the first time in the top-flight and moved on to 11 goals for the season before adding a third with a lovely floating header.
Gibbs-White is only the third player to score a Premier League hat-trick for Nottingham Forest, after Kevin Campbell and Chris Wood – who made a first start for six months.
Forest found a fourth in added time when Igor Jesus broke away to fire past Martin Dubravka.
Villa tighten grip on Champions League place
A stunning late comeback from Sunderland was not enough as Aston Villa won 4-3 at Villa Park to strengthen their grip on Champions League football.
Villa held a comfortable 3-1 lead with four minutes left before two goals in 58 seconds saw the visitors somehow come back.
Substitute Tammy Abraham then found time to prod in a winner in the 93rd-minute and leave Unai Emery’s side well placed in fourth.
Ollie Watkins headed them ahead in just the second minute before Chris Rigg equalised with a wonderful left-footed curler for his first Premier League goal.
Sunderland are the 20th team and final team to have an English goalscorer in the Premier League this season, with Rigg’s strike the first netted by an English player for them in the competition since May 2017 v Hull (Jermain Defoe and Billy Jones).
Amadou Onana headed off the crossbar as Villa dialled up the pressure and they regained the lead with another clever Watkins header from Ian Maatsen’s excellent cross.
Watkins then teed up Morgan Rogers for a fine finish at the start of the second half before plenty of Black Cats pressure eventually paid off in the 86th minute.
Trai Hume came off the bench to curl brilliantly into the top corner before a minute later Enzo Le Fee sliced Villa open with a gem of a pass and Wilson Isidor raced away to fire in.
Villa were stunned. But Abraham had the last word with the slightest touch to Lucas Digne’s cross for his second goal of the season.
Villa were five points clear of Liverpool and 10 ahead of Chelsea in sixth – before Virgil van Dijk’s late header in the Merseyside derby trimmed the gap to three.