Arsenal continued their march towards a first Premier League title in ages with a come-from-behind win over West Ham while Liverpool and Newcastle also added valuable three points in their games.
Arsenal vs West Ham:
Mikel Arteta’s men continued from where they left off at the Emirates before the World Cup break to go 7 points clear at the top of the table.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Eddie Nketiah cancelled out a first-half penalty by Said Benrahma during the 3-1 win.
Despite dominating the opening 20 minutes, Arsenal fell behind when William Saliba fouled Jarrod Bowen and Benrahma dispatched the resulting penalty. Saka drew his side level in the 53rd minute, putting away a mishit from Martin Odegaard past Lukasz Fabianski.
The equaliser opened the floodgates and Martinelli scored just five minutes later to give his side the lead.
Nketiah then put a bow on the proceedings in the 69th minute cleverly turning to lose his marker before lashing a shot past the keeper to secure three points.
The win leaves Arsenal with 40 points, seven ahead of second-placed Newcastle United and eight ahead of Manchester City who have a game in hand.
Newcastle United vs Leicester City:
Newcastle’s fairytale run in the Premier League continued with another dominant 3-0 win over Leicester City which lifted them above defending champions Manchester City.
Chris Wood, Miquel Almiron and Joelinton scored first-half goals as Eddie Howe’s men geared up for what can be another improbable story in the history of the league.
Liverpool vs Aston Villa:
Liverpool continued their recovery in the league table with another unconvincing 3-1 win over Aston Villa away from home.
Mohammed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Stefan Bajcetic scored for the winners while Ollie Watkins managed to get on the scoresheet for the home side.
The scoreline belies the actual cadence of the game in which both sides missed plenty of chances of adding more goals.
The win, however, lifts Liverpool to sixth on the table as they look to shake off the rust in time to secure Champions League football next year.
