Category: Football (Soccer)

Arsenal restored their five-point lead at the top of the table, while Leeds beat Chelsea and Villa came back from 2-0 down to win 4-3 at Brighton

Email! “Could this be the first time that a player with the surname Henry will grace the Arsenal pitch since Thierry’s retirement? wonders Peter Oh – no, I’m sure Karl Henry played there for Wolves, as well as Rico himself, and how good it is to see him back.

“As a Liverpool fan I would love to see Arsenal drop points today and feel some Schade-freude. Ouattara the chances?”

Sunderland were on course for their first win at Anfield since 1983 until Florian Wirtz forced an own-goal from Nordi Mukiele

1 min Liverpool kick off from right to left as we watch. They are in red; Sunderland are sporting their stylish Hummel change strip.

YNWA is being sung with the usual gusto at Anfield. The players on both sides look ready for business; let’s get it on.

Cristian Romero’s late overhead kick salvaged a point for Spurs after Newcastle were awarded a contentious penalty

Tottenham Hotspur kick off. A fine early-evening-pints-fuelled atmosphere at St James’ Park. Spurs are kicking towards the Gallowgate in this first half.

The teams are out! Newcastle in their famous black and white stripes, Spurs in 1982 FA Cup final yellow. A quick blast of the theme from Local Hero and we’ll be away. Howay!

Two late goals from Cristian Romero enabled Thomas Frank to leave Tyneside celebrating the sort of dramatic draw that can be construed as a form of moral victory.

The Tottenham captain’s equaliser in stoppage time, his second leveller of the scrappiest of games, not merely camouflaged plenty of visiting flaws but surely reinforced his manager’s recently fragile looking job security.

Manchester City win a whirlwind game against Fulham, Barcelona extend their lead at the top of the table

Elsewhere … England are playing Ghana in a friendly. Join Yara El-Shaboury for that one.

Barcelona: Joan García; Koundé, Cubarsí , Balde, Gerard Martín; Pedri, Eric García; Olmo, Lamine Yamal, Raphinha; Lewandowski.

In the past, moments like Chelsea’s shorthanded goal might have sent Arsenal reeling. No longer

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The gap at the top is five points. Arsenal have now played two of their three toughest away games of the season. They’ve come through a potentially extremely tricky week with reputation enhanced, despite being without one of their starting centre-backs for all three games and both for one of them. If there is any sense of disappointment, it is only that they failed to beat Chelsea, whom they have become accustomed to getting the better of, despite having a man advantage from the 38th minute on Sunday.

But really there shouldn’t be any disappointment. Coming out of the international break, having conceded a late equaliser to Sunderland in their previous game, Arsenal looked potentially vulnerable. Despite having been by far the most impressive side this season, their lead over Manchester City was only four points. They were without Gabriel, who probably ranks alongside Declan Rice as their most important player. They faced Tottenham, Bayern and Chelsea over the course of eight days, and Manchester City appeared to be beginning to gather momentum.

Ruben Amorim is happy to ‘steal’ from others, Phil Foden is central to City and Thomas Frank is in trouble at Tottenham

• Latest Premier League table | Top scorers

As Barney Ronay has noted, Arsenal are facing a weekly renewal of the Game You Just Have to Win If You Want to Be Champions. Did this represent a Game You Just Have to Win Because Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo Was Sent Off? Yes and no. The hosts will naturally be more pleased with a point in the context of the first-half red card, while Arsenal perhaps looked a little jaded and below their best overall. But Enzo Maresca’s side were excellent throughout, despite having to play so much of the match with 10 men, and they deserved something from it. Compared with some Chelsea v Arsenal encounters from the olden days (when more overtly physical iterations of the Blues traditionally used to crush the fragile Gunners) there were no signs of weakness, mental or otherwise, from Arteta’s Premier League leaders in a fierce and physical derby. They will experience few harder tests than this, and a point was fair. Luke McLaughlin

Arsenal would surely have taken a draw beforehand, against a Chelsea team that have emerged as surprise title rivals in recent weeks – and especially when they realised they had to play without William Saliba, who injured himself in training on Saturday.

It was a different story when, in the 38th minute, Chelsea were reduced to 10 men after Moisés Caicedo’s X-rated challenge on Mikel Merino. It was one of those that made you wince upon each replay, the stand-in Arsenal striker fortunate to emerge unscathed.