BANTAMS DOWN - COVENTRY IN TROUBLE

BRADFORD CITY have been relegated to the First Division after missing two penalties during their 2-1 defeat at Everton, while Coventry slip to second bottom as old boy Gary McAllister scored the second in a 2-0 victory for Liverpool against his old club, and Manchester City gave themselves hope of a great escape by beating West Ham.

With two nail-biting games left to play, Joe Royle's side are now a point above Coventry and just four points behind Derby and Middlesbrough, who both lost, to Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.

Andy Myers gave The Bantams hope of a miracle with an early goal before strikes from Duncan Ferguson and Niclas Alexandersson gave Everton the three points to ensure their Premiership safety.

Bradford had chances to win the game but only had themselves to blame as both Robbie Blake and Benito Carbone missed penalties. Blake's spot kick was saved by goalkeeper Paul Gerrard, while Carbone blasted his effort over the bar, to condemn Jim Jeffries' side to Division One.

Coventry also failed to take their chances against Liverpool and were made to pay with goals from Sami Hyypia and Gary McAllister. Hyypia rose well to glance home a header from a corner on 83 minutes and McAllister hit a trademark free kick two minutes later to seal the win.

With Leeds' early win against Chelsea, Liverpool are three points behind both David O'Leary's side and Ipswich in the race for a Champions League place, while Coventry now need six points from two games and must hope that results go their way to survive.

Shaun Goater's 23rd minute deflected shot was enough to give Manchester City a 1-0 win over West Ham, and has also given them a chance of escaping the drop.

Despite The Hammers dominating the later stages, they could not beat Carlo Nash who was outstanding in goal, and are still not mathematically safe from relegation.

Derby County fall deeper into trouble just a place above the relegation zone after going down to a 2-1 defeat against Arsenal at Pride Park.

The Gunners, who are still not certain of a Champions League spot, took the lead through Kanu after 21 minutes but The Rams were given hope with a Stefano Eranio goal on the stroke of half time.

Arsene Wenger's side won the game with a Robert Pires goal that leaves Derby precariously placed with two tough games left to play against champions Manchester United, and Ipswich.

Middlesbrough could not continue their recent good run as they went down 2-0 at The Riverside thanks to a rare goal from Philip Neville and a late David Beckham strike.

Neville grabbed only his second goal for the club to leave Boro level with Derby and they will need to win one of their remaining games to ensure their safety.

Sunderland put their recent bad run behind them as a spectacular Kevin Kilbane overhead kick gave them three points at The Dell against Southampton, who have still not scored under new boss Stuart Gray.

Elsewhere, Newcastle heaped more misery on Leicester City as a late Carl Cort strike gave them a 1-0 win at St James' Park, and Tottenham were held to a dull 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane against Aston Villa.

Click on the links for full match reports.

Coventry 0-2 Liverpool
Derby 1-2 Arsenal
Everton 2-1 Bradford
Leeds 2-0 Chelsea
Man City 1-0 West Ham
Middlesbrough 0-2 Man Utd
Newcastle 1-0 Leicester
Southampton 0-1 Sunderland
Tottenham 0-0 Aston Villa