Gunners fight back for point
ARSENAL proved their season still has signs of life after twice battling back to earn a 2-2 draw with their Premier League top-four rivals Manchester City.
Against a backdrop of uncertainty over the future of manager Arsene Wenger and the supporter protests aimed at ousting the Frenchman, the Gunners showed they can still cut it with the best in the division as they fought for a point.
Leroy Sane put the visitors ahead inside five minutes and Sergio Aguero restored the lead for Pep Guardiola’s men just 131 seconds after Theo Walcott had levelled.
Shkodran Mustafi headed Arsenal back on terms once more with just his second goal for the Gunners, who remain sixth in the table as a result seven points adrift of City in fourth.
Swansea and Middlesbrough shared a goalless draw at the Liberty Stadium which did little to alleviate their respective Premier League relegation worries
League leaders Chelsea suffered a shock 2-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace as Tottenham trimmed the Blues’ advantage to seven points.
Spurs’ hard-earned 2-0 win at Burnley narrowed the deficit at the top thanks to Chelsea’s unexpected slip-up against in-form Palace.
A manic start at Stamford Bridge saw Sam Allardyce’s visitors recover from conceding the opener to Cesc Fabregas in the fifth minute to be in front by the 11th, Christian Benteke chipping goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois after a fine move also involving Wilfried Zaha, who had already just equalised.
Palace were indebted to Wayne Hennessey with a string of important saves, and then they lost Scott Dann to a second-half injury as he scrambled another attack clear. But they held on grimly as Chelsea’s 10-match run of home victories came to an end, despite seven minutes of added time as they tried in vain to find an equaliser.
Tottenham were rocked by firsthalf injuries to Victor Wanyama and Harry Winks at Turf Moor, the latter taken to hospital for emergency treatment after sliding off the pitch and damaging his ankle.
But Eric Dier’s first league goal of the season arrived on the hour, and Son Heung-min added his 15th of the campaign 13 minutes from time as Burnley suffered a rare home defeat.
Everton’s 18-year wait for a victory at Anfield will extend several more months at least after their 3-1 Merseyside derby defeat.
Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho’s right-foot shots, in the eighth and 31st minutes, gave Liverpool the half-time advantage either side of Matthew Pennington’s first goal in his Everton career.
Mane had to go off with an ankle injury early in the second half, but his replacement Divock Origi added a third with another shot from distance on the hour to take the Reds above Manchester City into third place.
Manchester United were unable to make any ground up from fifth place as they were held to a stalemate at home to determined West Brom.
Andy Carroll’s 50th Premier League goal put West Ham in front, but it failed to halt relegationthreatened Hull’s recent resurgence.
Carroll was on target in the 18th minute at the KCOM Stadium only for the hosts to hit back first through Andy Robertson (53) and then Andrea Ranocchia (85) to earn three more precious points and go level on 27 with Swansea.
Leicester, meanwhile, were indebted to Wilfried Ndidi’s first Premier League goal – an outstanding long-range strike in the 25th minute – as the champions won 2-0 at home to Stoke, extending new manager Craig Shakespeare’s 100 per cent record to four matches.
Jamie Vardy volleyed in the second for the Foxes, and his fifth in six matches, early in the second half.
There was no respite for bottomof-the-table Sunderland at Watford, where Miguel Britos supplied the winning goal with a header just before the hour as the hosts prevailed 1-0.