Arsenal opened up a seven-point lead with a 3-1 win over West Ham United as the English Premier League returned on Monday, while Newcastle United climbed up to second thanks to an impressive 3-0 victory at Leicester City.
Liverpool also made a winning return from the FIFA World Cup break by beating Aston Villa 3-1 and Harry Kane bounced back from his heartbreak in Qatar by scoring in Tottenham Hotspur’s 2-2 draw at Brentford.
Arsenal’s momentum toward a first league title since 2004 could have been disturbed by the six-week mid-season break, but manager Mikel Arteta’s men passed another test of their resolve after going in 1-0 behind at halftime to Said Benrahma’s penalty.
Photo: AFP
Two goals in 5 minutes from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli turned the game on its head before Eddie Nketiah stepped up in the absence of the injured Gabriel Jesus to seal the points.
“I’m delighted with the result and performance,” Arteta said. “We scored at the perfect time and the crowd was incredible, also in the moment we conceded the goal. They kept on believing. When we scored it got loud and we generated the momentum we needed.”
NO STOPPING MAGPIES
Newcastle’s charge toward a return to the UEFA Champions League was also not halted by the break as the Magpies scored twice in the first 7 minutes at Leicester.
Chris Wood opened the scoring from the penalty spot before Miguel Almiron played a one-two with Bruno Guimaraes and slotted past Danny Ward for his eighth goal in his past eight league games.
Joelinton headed home from a corner in the 32nd minute as Newcastle made it six successive league victories — their best run in the competition since 2012.
“We can do anything,” said Newcastle manager Eddie Howe, referring to their chance of a title challenge. “The season is still young enough for all possibilities to exist for us. I want the fans to believe we can do anything.”
In the first Premier League fixture since the middle of last month, Tottenham were in danger of a damaging defeat after Vitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney put Brentford in command, but Kane netted with a 65th-minute header to start the Tottenham recovery in his first game since missing a crucial penalty in England’s World Cup quarter-final defeat against France.
Brentford have not beaten Tottenham since 1948, and their long wait for a victory over the north Londoners goes on after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg curled home with 19 minutes left.
Tottenham manager Antonio Conte praised England captain Kane for his contribution following his World Cup disappointment.
“When he came back he was good. We know the importance of Harry for us, his personality, his character. He’s the best player we have. I’m happy that he scored today,” Conte said.
Tottenham stay fourth in the table, four points ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
REDS TOO GOOD
Liverpool closed to within five points of Spurs and with a game in hand to come by inflicting Unai Emery’s first league defeat as Villa manager.
Mohamed Salah swept home his 15th goal of the season in a frantic opening with chances aplenty at both ends.
The Egyptian then teed up Virgil van Dijk to give Liverpool breathing space before halftime.
Ollie Watkins gave Villa hope with a towering header midway through the second half, but Stefan Bajcetic’s first senior goal secured a third consecutive league win for Juergen Klopp’s men.
At the other end of the table, Everton suffered a damaging 2-1 defeat against relegation rivals Wolverhampton Wanserers as Rayan Ait-Nouri struck in the final seconds for the visitors at Goodison Park.
Everton are now just one point above Wolves in the final relegation place.
Fulham won 3-0 at nine-man Crystal Palace, who had Tyrick Mitchell and James Tomkins sent off. Bobby de Cordova-Reid, Tim Ream and Aleksandar Mitrovic scored Fulham’s goals.
Southampton slipped to the bottom of the table after a 3-1 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Taiwanese badminton player Lin Chun-yi had to settle for silver in the men’s singles at the Orleans Masters in France on Sunday after losing in the final to his French opponent. The 25-year-old Lin, ranked world No. 14, lost to Alex Lanier 13-21, 18-21 in a match that lasted 42 minutes at the Palais des Sports arena. It was the first time that the two players were facing each other in their professional careers. In the opener, Lin was slow to warm up, which gave the 20-year-old Lanier an opportunity to take an early lead with seven consecutive points. Despite
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
Taiwan’s Lin Chun-yi on Wednesday inflicted a first-round defeat on former badminton world No. 1 Viktor Axelsen at the All England Open. Lin came out of top after a back-and-forth first game before Axelsen dominated the second, but the Dane was not able to keep that form in the decider as Lin reeled off six points in a row on the way to a 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 victory. “If I don’t play my best, everyone can win against me,” said Axelsen, the world No. 4. “Today’s opponent played a fantastic game; it was disappointing, but that is how it is.” “I just tried
Two-time Indian Wells champion Iga Swiatek on Thursday avenged her shock Paris Olympics loss to Zheng Qinwen with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Chinese eighth seed, setting up a semi-final against 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the California desert. In the men’s singles, Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz put on a show with his acrobatic shotmaking under the lights to close out the day’s action, overcoming a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Francisco Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei crashed out of the women’s doubles. Swiatek, one of the gold medal favorites when she lost to eventual champion Zheng in the
RSS