Arsenal’s lead over Manchester City in the Premier League title race remains five points after both sides ground out victories in far from convincing fashion this weekend.
City edged Leeds 1-0 on Saturday to pile pressure upon the Gunners, who responded to beat Chelsea 2-1 thanks to their prowess from set-pieces.
In the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League, Aston Villa suffered a damaging defeat to bottom-of-the-table Wolves as Manchester United and Liverpool gained momentum.
AFP Sport looks at three talking points from the Premier League weekend:
Corner kings Arsenal
Goals from William Saliba and Jurrien Timber took Arsenal’s tally for the season from corners alone in the Premier League to 16 equalling the competition’s record for a single campaign.
“The first goal is top. Arsenal are probably the best team in the world at them,” said Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior.
Set-piece goals fuelled the Gunners’ early charge towards a first league title in 22 years and Mikel Arteta welcomed the return of that route to goal after a few dry weeks.
“We have lost points to long throws lately and we haven’t scored from many set-pieces. Today we did it. To have these options is great,” said the Spaniard.
The attritional nature of much of Arsenal’s success has led to criticism.
Arteta’s men may not fit the aesthetically pleasing mould of Arsene Wenger’s title winners around the turn of the century.
But they have answered questions over their ability to handle the pressure of a title race in recent weeks after a wobble in draws at Brentford and Wolves.
City still have a game in hand and home advantage when the sides meet next month.
But that is Arsenal’s only remaining fixture against a side in the top six as their path to glory opens up.
Semenyo’s immediate impact
City’s investment on Antoine Semenyo and Marc Guehi has provided an immediate return to haul Pep Guardiola’s men back into the title race.
After failing to win any of their first four league games of the year, they have now put four victories together to have Arsenal fearing that history could repeat itself.
City pipped the Gunners to the title in 2022/23 and 2023/24 and famously won their last 14 games to overhaul Liverpool in 2018/19.
Semenyo’s sixth goal in 11 appearances since joining from Bournemouth inflicted a rare defeat on Leeds under the lights at Elland Road.
“It’s the attention to detail, everyone’s focused. It’s not lacking. When you do that in training it follows into games and everyone just wants to win,” said the Ghanaian on the step up to life at City.
“Everyone’s just major focused, and that shift in mentality is so crazy. Little things and making sure you’re in tip-top shape.”
Guehi has made an equally impressive start at the other end of the field to bring some stability to a defence that had been rocked by injuries.
Villa run out of steam
Villa are at risk of being overwhelmed by giants of the English game with far deeper resources in the fight for a place in the Champions League.
Unai Emery’s injury-ravaged side have won just one in six games in all competitions to tumble from title contenders down to fourth.
They hit a new low on Friday as Wolves secured just their second league win of the season to avoid a record low Premier League points tally.
Manchester United’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace lifted them into third and Liverpool have also closed to within three points.
But Villa have a huge opportunity when Chelsea visit on Wednesday.
The top five are almost certain to qualify for the Champions League thanks to the strong showing of English sides in Europe this season.
Victory over the Blues would stretch Villa’s advantage over Chelsea to nine points with nine games to go.
“It’s getting balance,” said Emery. “We are doing a great season and this is the moment I want to tell our supporters, now we need the supporters. We need their energy.”
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Manchester United
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