Watford draws with Arsenal on Flores return, Everton loses

After spells in charge of Espanyol in Spain and Shanghai Shenhua in China, Quique Sánchez Flores returned to the thrills and spills of the Premier League on Sunday as his Watford side drew with Arsenal 2-2.

Flores, who left Watford in 2016 but returned to take over from the fired Javi Gracia, began his second reign as manager by leading the last-place team to just its second point from five games.

But it could have been even more. The Spaniard was left holding his head as Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno denied Abdoulaye Doucouré what would have been a dramatic winner in injury time.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice for Arsenal but the visitors had no answer to Watford in the second half and will be relieved to have escaped with a point.

Aubameyang scored against the run of play in the 21st minute after Dani Ceballos won the ball with a crunching tackle on Will Hughes. Sead Kolasinac ran forward and passed to Aubameyang, who stopped the ball with his left boot and spun around to fire it in with his right.

It was almost 2-0 minutes later after Ceballos found Mesut Özil, whose cross Aubameyang just failed to reach. Özil was making his first league appearance of the season.

Özil showed just what Arsenal had been missing in the 32nd when he split the Watford defense with a brilliant ball to send Ainsley Maitland-Niles though. The Arsenal right-back crossed to give Aubameyang a simple finish for his second goal, his fifth of the season.

But Arsenal was lackluster after the break and gifted Watford a goal back in the 53rd, when Leno passed to Sokratis, who attempted a straight ball forward to Guendouzi. Gerard Deulofeu intercepted the ball, which fell to Tom Cleverley to hammer back past Leno for 2-1.

The visitors continued to wobble as Watford continued to dominate. David Luiz fouled Roberto Pereyra just inside the penalty area and the Argentine midfielder dusted himself off to equalize from the spot in the 81st.

CHERRIES BEAT TOFFEES

In Sunday's other game, Callum Wilson scored twice to help Bournemouth beat Everton 3-1 for the Cherries' second Premier League win.

Wilson put the home side ahead after a corner in the 23rd minute. Dominic Calvert-Lewin equalized before the break, but poor defending thwarted the Toffees' hopes of a point.

Substitute Ryan Fraser restored Bournemouth's lead in the 67th with a free kick and Wilson claimed his second goal five minutes later.

Bournemouth and Everton both have seven points.

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Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus scored more goals in 53 minutes on Saturday than he had in the previous eight months in the English Premier League.

Becoming the first player in the league to score four goals in one game this season, Jesus led City to a 5-1 thrashing of Watford to open a four-point lead over second-placed Liverpool in the title race.

Liverpool can trim that back to one point with five matches left by beating Everton in the Merseyside derby on Sunday.

Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus celebrates after scoring his fourth goal, his side's fifth, during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Watford at Etihad stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, April 23, 2022. (AP PhotoJon Super)

Jesus scored three goals in the league before the arrival of next-to-last Watford for a match that ended up resembling a training exercise.

The Brazil international netted twice in the first half and twice more in the opening eight minutes of the second half — one of which was a penalty to complete his hat trick.

Rodri scored the other goal for City, which used the match to give key players a rest ahead of Real Madrid's visit in the Champions League semifinals on Tuesday.

Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes reacts after failing to score from a penalty kick during an English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester United at the Emirates stadium in London, Saturday April 23, 2022. (AP PhotoAlastair J. Grant)

While City stayed on course for the title, fierce rival Manchester United likely dropped out of the race for Champions League qualification.

By losing at Arsenal 3-1, United fell six points behind its top-four rival and manager Ralf Rangnick all but called time on his team's season.

“I don’t think it’s very realistic to dream and think of the top four," Rangnick said at the end of a week when United also lost at Liverpool 4-0 and hired a new manager, Ajax's Erik ten Hag, for the start of next season.

Arsenal moved into fourth, three points above north London rival Tottenham, which visited Brentford late.

In other games, last-placed Norwich plunged closer to relegation with a 3-0 loss at home to Newcastle, while mid-table teams Leicester and Aston Villa drew 0-0.

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