Challengers choke under pressure
BODY BLOW Tottenham, Arsenal and City lose in their pursuit of Leicester; Man United storm into mix of things
LONDON: Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City remain sitting pretty at the Premier League summit after their closest rivals Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester City remarkably all contrived to lose on Wednesday.
Leicester had dropped points in a 2-2 draw with West Brom on Tuesday, but they remain in pole position after Spurs lost 1-0 at West Ham, Arsenal crashed 2-1 at home to Swansea and Liverpool claimed revenge for their League Cup defeat by crushing City 3-0.
The results kept Leicester three points clear of second-place Tottenham, with Arsenal — booed off at the Emirates Stadium — three points further back and City now 10 points off the pace, albeit with a game in hand.
Manchester United are now level on points with City in fifth place, having played a game more, after Juan Mata’s 83rdminute free-kick secured a 1-0 home win over Watford.
West Ham’s victory over Tottenham, courtesy of Michail Antonio’s seventh-minute header, left them a point off the Champions League places in sixth place.
Arsenal completed a night to forget for the north London clubs by blowing a 1-0 lead in a home defeat at the hands of relegationthreatened Swansea.
It was Arsenal’s third defeat in succession in all competitions and their seventh of the league campaign, prompting a wave of angry boos to roll around the ground at the final whistle.
After earlier hitting the post, Alexis Sanchez neatly teed up Joel Campbell to put Arsenal ahead in the 15th minute. But Wayne Routledge equalised just after the half hour and although Olivier Giroud and Sanchez both hit the bar, Swansea won it when Ashley Williams converted Gylfi Sigurdsson’s 74th-minute free-kick.
Manchester City’s title hopes were left in a sorry state after they slumped to defeat at Anfield. Two goals in seven firsthalf minutes by Adam Lallana and James Milner put Liverpool in control while Firmino completed victory in the 57th minute.