The leader Arsenal did not get nervous and beat Leeds United 4-1 at home, this Saturday in the 29th round of the Premier League, in which shortly before Manchester City (2nd) had won by the same result of 4-1 to Liverpool.
The ‘Citizens’ had thus approached five points behind the ‘Gunners’, who thanks to their good response put the difference back to eight units, although Manchester City has played one game less.
The Brazilian Gabriel Jesús was the leader of Arsenal this Saturday at the Emirates Stadium, first putting his team ahead of a penalty in minute 35 and then putting his team’s third in minute 55, finishing perfectly after a pass from Leandro Trossard.
In between, Benjamin White, assisted by the Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli, had also scored for Arsenal, at the start of the second half (47).
Leeds, sixteenth in the table, cut it short in minute 76 with a goal from the Danish Rasmus Nissen Kristensen, but Arsenal killed any attempt to come back with the final 4-1, with a headed goal from the Swiss Granit Xhaka to finish off a measured cross from Norwegian Martin Odegaard.
"I always want to score, in every game, although sometimes you can’t. But I’m happier for the three points than for the goals"declared Gabriel Jesús to Sky Sports.
It is Arsenal’s seventh straight win in the Premier League, before visiting Anfield on Sunday next week to play Liverpool.
Julian Álvarez makes Haaland forget
Precisely Liverpool (now eighth, seven points from the Champions League zone) was a broken toy this Saturday in the hands of the other title contender, Manchester City, who thrashed Jürgen Klopp’s team 4-1 despite his absence Norwegian star Erling Haaland.
The only moment of hope for the ‘Reds’ came when they opened the scoring.
A beautiful play by Liverpool, in which the Portuguese Diogo Jota intervened, allowed the Egyptian Mohamed Salah, who arrived thrown, to score from an uncontrolled shot with his left foot (0-1, 17).
But City recovered quickly and a play involving Kevin de Bruyne, Riyad Mahrez, Ilkay Gündogan and Jack Grealish ended with the latter’s cross, for Álvarez to score from six meters from goal (1-1, 27).
The Argentine was then the origin of the second goal by sending Mahrez deep down the right and the Algerian’s millimeter cross was pushed into the net by De Bruyne, despite Alisson’s desperate interception attempt (2-1, 46).
A little later, after a new chain of passes, a repelled shot from Álvarez reached the feet of Gündogan, who scored (3-1, 53).
Grealish’s fourth goal, after a play with De Bruyne, was a model of technical skill and intelligence on the move (4-1, 74).
"From minute 1 to 93, it has been a perfect performance. It was one of the best performances of the last seven years for my team."that is to say, since the arrival of Pep Guardiola on the bench, the Catalan coach celebrated at the microphone of the BT Sport chain.
To the contrary, Liverpool’s German manager Jurgen Klopp was grieving: "There is nothing positive to say about this match".
N’Golo Kanté is back
In the last game of the day, Chelsea (11th) continued their erratic march and fell 2-0 at home to Aston Villa (9th), who counted on goals from Ollie Watkins (18) and John McGinn (56).
At Chelsea, the French midfielder N’Golo Kanté reappeared, who had been injured in August on the second day. He came into play after Aston Villa’s second goal.
For their part, Leicester (18th) continued to complicate their permanence by losing 2-1 in the final discount against Crystal Palace (12th), while Bournemouth left the relegation zone and placed fifteenth by winning 2-1 against Fulham (10th).
The other two games played on Saturday ended in draws, 1-1 between Nottingham Forest (14th) and Wolverhampton (13th), and 3-3 between Brighton (6th) and Brentford (7th).
