United frustrate Blues in top-four tussle
CHELSEA missed a chance to regain their place in the Premier League’s top four as they dominated Manchester United but had to be content with a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge yesterday.
The home side carved out the best chances but United, who had a decent first-half penalty appeal turned down, defended solidly throughout to earn a point.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel remains unbeaten in nine games since taking over from sacked Frank Lampard, but a second successive league draw left him frustrated.
His side remain in fifth spot with 44 points from 26 games, one point behind West Ham United, while Manchester United are second with 50 points from 26 games, 12 points behind runaway leaders Manchester City.
Earlier, Arsenal revived their hopes of playing in European competition next season after goals from David Luiz, Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe helped them to a 3-1 win at Leicester City in an entertaining clash.
The Foxes produced another poor performance after Thursday's 2-0 home defeat by Slavia Prague sent them crashing out of the Europa League, where Arsenal progressed to the last 16 with a 4-3 aggregate win over Benfica.
Lacazette said two successive wins would boost Arsenal's confidence in their bid to climb up the standings.
"We want to go as high as possible in the league and the reaction today after the goal we conceded was really good," the French striker told BT Sport.
"We know it's really important now, we have March, April and May to finish well. Comeback wins in two successive games will be a massive confidence boost."
Leicester took a sixth-minute lead at King Power stadium as Youri Tielemans robbed two Arsenal players of the ball on the right flank and cut inside the area before he fired a low shot into the far corner.
The Gunners equalised in the 39th minute when Luiz headed a Willian cross into the bottom right corner, and Lacazette turned the tide in first-half stoppage time as he drilled in a penalty after a Video Assistant Referee check showed Wilfred Ndidi had handled the ball in the area.
Poor defending cost Leicester again in the 52nd minute as they allowed the visitors to break through the middle before Willian slipped the ball to Pepe and the Ivorian forward tucked it into an empty net from two metres.
Arsenal held on comfortably in the closing stages and missed chances to win by a bigger margin as Kieran Tierney volleyed just wide from 20 metres and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang came close with a fizzing low shot.
Kelechi Iheanacho summed up Leicester's afternoon in the last minute of stoppage time when he blazed the ball over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
Meanwhile, Gareth Bale scored two goals in Tottenham Hotspur's 4-0 win over Burnley.