Ajax are the clear favourites to win their 37th Eredivisie title after a workmanlike 1-0 win against bottom side Almere, while PSV lost to Go Ahead Eagles for the second time in a week.

The league leaders went ahead in the eighth minute when Mika Godts’ blocked cross landed at the feet of Kenneth Taylor, who calmly rolled the ball into the bottom right corner of Nordin Bakker’s goal.

Almere fought hard to break through a defence that kept a clean sheet for the fourth match in a row. Kornelius Hansen came closest to equalising when he lobbed the ball over the stranded Matheus, only to see it come back off the crossbar.

The result gives Ajax an eight-point cushion over PSV with 10 matches to play, but coach Francesco Farioli insisted he was not thinking about the title.

“The key thing for is to stick to our mindset and to accumulate points,” he said. “It wasn’t our best game but it was the best result possible.”

Eagles soar again

PSV, meanwhile, suffered a hammer blow to their title hopes at the hands of the team that knocked them out of the cup in midweek.

Go Ahead Eagles took the lead in Deventer when Oliver Antman slid in to turn Victor Edvardsen’s cross. PSV equalised after half an hour with a header from Luuk de Jong, before Noa Lang’s deflected shot floated over the head of Jari De Busser to give them a 2-1 lead at half-time.

Peter Bosz’s side enjoyed two huge let-offs when Go Ahead were denied a penalty following a video review and then had an equaliser disallowed when Oscar Petersson was found to be marginally offside.

But Go Ahead were not to be denied. Edvardsen pounced on a defensive lapse to level the scores in the 74th minute, and then Antman scored his second two minutes from the end to consign PSV to a fourth league defeat since Christmas.

Van Persie draw

Utrecht were the only other team in the top six to win as they edged out NAC at home. Sébastian Haller, still looking for his first goal since returning to Utrecht in January, fired a low shot against the post, but Oscar Fraulo was on hand to tap the rebound into the net.

Robin van Persie’s first match as Feyenoord coach ended in a goalless draw in De Kuip with NEC, with both teams denied a winner late in the second half by VAR reviews.

Lars Olden Larsen dispatched a header past Timo Wellenreuther in the 72nd minute, but the video referee spotted a handball in the build-up by Koki Ogawa, while Stéphano Carrillo had the ball in the the net for Feyenoord, but was found to be offside.

Heerenveen revenge

Van Persie’s former club, Heerenveen, dented AZ’s hopes of overtaking Feyenoord in fourth place with a 3-1 win to erase the memories of their 9-1 drubbing in Alkmaar in September.

Heerenveen went 2-0 ahead with an early goal by Milos Lukovic and a second-half finish by Ilias Sebaoui after Bruno Martins Indi lost the ball near his own penalty area.

A defensive blunder at the other end by Marcus Linday let Zico Buurmeester in to reduce the deficit in the 75th minute, before Heernveen scored again in a dramatic finale.

AZ appeared to have equalised in the 91st minute when Mayckel Lahdo finally found a way past Andries Noppert from a tight angle, but the referee was called over to review a foul in the opposite penalty area just beforehand.

Heerenveen were awared a penalty which Lukovic proceeded to miss, but just before the whistle Linday made up for his earlier error when he smashed in his side’s third goal.

Heracles, Sparta wins

Heracles consoled themselves after their cup semi-final defeat to AZ on penalties by beating PEC Zwolle to pull away from the relegation zone.

Brian De Keersmaecker gave Heracles an early lead from the penalty spot, but Dylan Vente equalised a minute later before Anselmo Mac Nulty stretched to turn a free-kick into the net to give PEC the lead.

Thomas Bruns equalised just before half-time and Heracles claimed the points in the second half with a neat finish by Juho Talvitie and a Jizz Hoornkamp header.

Sparta claimed a vital three points with a 4-0 win over relegation rivals Willem II that closed the gap on the 15th-placed club to one point. Tobias Lauritsen opened the scorinng 20 minutes with a fierce shot and struck again with a header in the second half, in between Mitchell van Bergen’s first goal for nearly three years and a smart finish by Kristian Hlynsson.

Sem Steijn scored his 19th goal of the season from the penalty spot as Groningen and Twente shared the spoils in the Euroborg, while Fortuna Sittard spoiled RKC’s Carnaval weekend as Ryan Fosso struck a 94th-minute winner in Waalwijk.

Results

Friday

RKC Waalwijk 1-2 Fortuna Sittard

Saturday

Feyenoord 0-0 NEC Nijmegen

Groningen 1-1 Twente Enschede

Go Ahead Eagles 3-2 PSV Eindhoven

Utrecht 1-0 NAC Breda

Sunday

Almere City 0-1 Ajax

Heerenveen 3-1 AZ Alkmaar

Heracles Almelo 4-2 PEC Zwolle

Sparta Rotterdam 4-0 Willem II Tilburg