Arsenal extend Premier League lead, Leeds climb out of bottom three
Arsenal
opened up a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League thanks to a 1-0
win at Leicester on Saturday as Leeds beat Southampton 1-0 to give new boss
Javi Gracia a winning start.
The Gunners
snapped a four-game winless streak with two late goals at Aston Villa last week
to take back control of the title race after briefly being usurped at the top of
the table by Manchester City.
Mikel
Arteta's men needed no such drama at the King Power and should have run out far
more convincing winners.
Oleksandr
Zinchenko was handed the captain's armband by Arteta as a show of support for
Ukraine to mark the first anniversary of Russia's invasion of the defender's
homeland.
Eddie
Nketiah was dropped in Arteta's other big call, but the Spaniard's decision to
start both Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard paid dividends.
Trossard had
a brilliant first half strike into the top corner controversially ruled out by
a VAR review for a foul be Ben White on Leicester goalkeeper Danny Ward.
But
Martinelli was not to be denied one minute into the second period when he
coolly slotted home from Trossard's pass.
Bukayo Saka
had a second goal ruled out for offside as Arsenal failed to turn their
domination into a more convincing scoreline.
However,
they did enough to pile the pressure on second-placed City ahead of their trip
to Bournemouth later on Saturday.
Leeds end
long wait for win
Leeds had
not won a league game since before the World Cup break, a run which saw Jesse
Marsch sacked.
But they
snapped that streak in a clash between the bottom two before kick-off at Elland
Road.
Junior Firpo
scored the only goal 13 minutes from time to lift Leeds out of the relegation
zone.
West Ham
were the other big winners of the day in the battle to beat the drop as four
goals in the final 20 minutes potentially saved David Moyes' job in a 4-0 win
over Nottingham Forest.
According to
reports this week, the former Manchester United manager faced the sack if the
Hammers lost.
Two goals in
three minutes from Danny Ings transformed the mood around the London Stadium
before Declan Rice and Michail Antonio sealed West Ham's second league win
since October.
Everton
slipped back into the bottom three after losing 2-0 at home to Aston Villa.
Ollie
Watkins' penalty and Emi Buendia's strike condemned Sean Dyche to a first home
defeat since taking charge of the Toffees.
Liverpool
are looking for a response to their 5-2 humbling at home to Real Madrid in the
Champions League on Tuesday when Jurgen Klopp's men visit Crystal Palace in a
2000GMT kick-off at Selhurst Park.
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