Sigh of relief for Arsenal
With his job increasingly on the line after an alarming start to the football season, Mikel Arteta placed his faith in Arsenal’s kids to get the team out of trouble.
They delivered for their underpressure manager.
Powered by two 19-year-olds — Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka — and a 20-year-old in Emile Smith Rowe making his first start in the Premier League this season, Arsenal produced their best performance in some time to beat Chelsea 3-1.
“We needed that. We needed to give the fans something,” Arsenal defender Kieran Tierney said. “It’s something to build on.”
It took 90 minutes for the scrutiny that was hovering over Arteta to drift toward his Chelsea counterpart, Frank Lampard.
That’s three losses in the last four league games for Chelsea, who have dropped to seventh place.
Elsewhere, Manchester United’s perfect away record is over, after substitute Axel Tuanzebe unwittingly deflected a shot from Jamie Vardy into his own net in the 85th minute to gift Leicester a 2-2 draw at home.
The draw between Leicester and Man United gave Everton the chance to move above both of them — and into second place — by beating Sheffield United, and Carlo Ancelotti’s team took their opportunity, Gylfi Sigurdsson scoring in the 80th minute to earn Everton a 1-0 win.
Manchester City continue to toil away with a routine 2-0 victory over Newcastle in the pouring rain, Aston Villa had far too much for Crystal Palace in their 3-0 home win, while Southampton had two second-half goals ruled out by VAR in a 0-0 draw at Fulham.