Manchester City came back from two goals down to earn a point at West Ham, but Riyad Mahrez missed a chance to win the game from the penalty spot with five minutes remaining.
Twice Jarrod Bowen was allowed to get behind the Manchester City defence in the first half and finished superbly to give the Hammers a 2-0 lead at the break.
On both occasions Oleksandr Zinchenko was culpable for not tracking Bowen’s diagonal runs behind the defence from the right flank. In the first instance, he rounded Ederson before slotting high into the net from a tight angle and then on the stroke of half time drilled a low effort home from the edge of the box.
Jack Grealish soon got City back into the game with a strike from the edge of the box which deflected on the underside of Craig Dawson’s leg and then bounced over Lukasz Faianski and into the net.
Then 21 minutes from time, a freak own goal from Vladimir Coufal heading Mahrez’s free kick into his own net under little pressure saw the game brought level.
Although City had all of the play, the Hammers were still dangerous on the break and Bowen could have scored two more when he shot into the side-netting after another Zinchenko error and then a shot deflected off Aymeric Laporte which could easily have put the hosts back in front.
Then, with time running out, Gabriel Jesus was brought down in the box by Dawson and Mahrez shot to Fabianski’s left but the goalkeeper parried the effort away.
City are now four points clear of Liverpool who have two games remaining and are seven goals worse off in terms of goal difference. Although the comeback was not quite completed, the point does seem to put beyond doubt the destination of the Premier League title.
