SWANSEA CITY AND Hull City kept their hopes of Premier League survival alive with huge wins on Saturday afternoon.
But Middlesbrough’s top-flight status is hanging by a thread after a 4-0 walloping against Bournemouth left them nine points from safety with five games to play.
At the London Stadium, West Ham and Everton drew 0-0, a result which edges Slaven Bilic’s side onto 38 points and ever closer to that magic 40-point mark.
But the day belonged to Swansea, who beat Stoke City 2-0, and to Hull, who were 2-0 winners against Watford despite losing Oumar Niasse to a red card in the 25th minute.
Fernando Llorente opened the scoring for the Swans in the 10th minute before a frantic second-half minute decided the outcome.
Marko Arnautovic missed a penalty in the 69th minute before Tom Carroll scored the hosts’ winner 60 seconds later to secure the points.
The win leaves Swansea third from bottom on 31 points, seven clear of Middlesbrough having played a game more, but crucially, still two behind relegation rivals Hull.
The Tigers continued their brilliant home form under manager Marco Silva, their win against Watford making it 19 points from 21 at the KCOM Stadium since the Portuguese took charge in January.
Niasse was shown a straight red in the 25th minute but 10-man Hull took the lead two minutes after the hour mark when Lazar Markovic finished a breakaway goal, before Sam Clucas grabbed a second with a sensational volley nine minutes later.
Goals from Josh King and Benik Afobe had Bournemouth in an early 2-0 lead at the Vitality Stadium before struggling Middlesbrough lost Gaston Ramirez to a second yellow card on 20 minutes.
Marc Pugh and Charlie Daniels hit two more goals in the space of five second-half minutes to leave Boro on the brink.
Here’s how the bottom of the table looks this evening:
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