Zlatan Ibrahimovic starred as Manchester United swept past Sunderland 3-0 at the Stadium of Light in a victory that keeps their hopes of a top-four finish still alive. This victory took them to fifth place in the table with 57 points and a match in hand against fourth-placed Manchester City who have 61.

It was in the 30th minute that Ibrahimovic opened the scoring with a beautiful curler from Ander Herrera’s pass to score his 28th goal of the season. Sunderland’s woes further increased after Seb Larsson was controversially sent off for a high tackle on Herrera in the 43rd minute.

After the break, Henrikh Mkhitaryan doubled United’s lead with a goal from the edge of the box in the 46th minute and Marcus Rashford put the result beyond doubt in the 89th minute, getting on the end of an Ibrahimovic cross to score United’s third of the match and consign Sunderland to their 21st league defeat in 31 matches and perilously close to relegation.

Everton halt Leicester’s winning run

Romelu Lukaku ensured that Leicester’s winning run of five matches was halted by scoring twice as Everton ran out 4-2 winners against them at Goodison Park. Tom Davies put one in after just 30 seconds to give Everton the lead but Leicester counter-attacked through Islam Slimani in the fourth minute and took the lead through a free-kick from Marc Albrighton in the 10th minute.

However, Lukaku levelled matters in the 23rd minute by heading in his 22nd league goal of the season. Phil Jagielka then put the home team in front in the 41st minute by heading in his second goal of the week. Jagielka would play a part in the fourth goal as well, climbing high and heading the goal into Lukaku’s path to score the fourth goal of the match in the 57th minute.

Scores:

Manchester United 3 (Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marcus Rashford) beat Everton 0

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Everton 4 (Tom Davies, Romelu Lukaku X 2, Phil Jagielka) beat Leicester City 2 (Islam Slimani, Marc Albrighton)