With one team scoring after just 18 seconds and another after 21 seconds, the Premier League on Tuesday made an explosive return following the competition’s winter break.
Arsenal left it much later for their goals in a win that kept the pressure on Liverpool at the top of the table.
Just when it looked like being another frustrating match for Arsenal’s often-profligate attack, Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka scored in the second half to help them beat Nottingham Forest 2-1, jump into second place and trim the gap to Liverpool to two points.
Photo: Reuters
Arsenal might be able to maintain a title push heading into the final months of the campaign, but can Aston Villa?
Unai Emery’s team have been the big surprise this season, but a 3-1 loss at home against Newcastle United slowed their bid for a finish in the UEFA Champions League places, with Villa staying in fourth place.
There were five games in total and 16 goals scored, three of them to Luton Town striker Elijah Adebayo in a 4-0 thrashing of Brighton & Hove Albion that lifted his team out of the relegation zone.
Photo: Reuters
Adebayo’s first came after just 18 seconds and it was barely the quickest of the night, with Ben Brereton Diaz scoring after 21 seconds for Sheffield United in their 3-2 loss against Crystal Palace.
Fulham and Everton drew 0-0 in the other match on the opening night of the league’s midweek round.
Jesus has been criticized by some for not being the clinical finisher Arsenal might need to end their 20-year wait for a Premier League title.
Photo: Reuters
The Brazil striker was enduring another frustrating match, heading over in the first half and smashing a shot against the post just after the restart, before being the inspiration behind the win.
In the 65th minute, he received a throw in from Oleksandr Zinchenko, drove toward goal at an acute angle and sent in a shot that deflected into the net off the heel of Forest goalkeeper Matt Turner — a former Arsenal player.
Jesus then turned provider as he led a counterattack and passed the ball across to Saka, who took a touch and shot right-footed into the bottom corner from just inside the area in the 72nd minute.
Photo: Reuters
Substitute Taiwo Awoniyi scored in the 89th minute for Forest.
Liverpool had a chance to restore their five-point lead by beating Chelsea at home, with that game scheduled to begin after press time last night.
Villa had not lost at home since February last year before getting beaten for the second time this season by Newcastle United.
Photo: AFP
Two goals in four first-half minutes from Fabian Schar put Newcastle United in control before Alex Moreno’s own-goal just after the break. Ollie Watkins grabbed a consolation for Villa, who were at risk of dropping to fifth place after the Tottenham Hotspur-Brentford game, which was also to be played after press time.
Newcastle had lost six of their previous seven league games to slip away from the top four, but victory lifted them to seventh place, although still 11 points behind Villa.
However, Emery said that Villa should be proud of going 17 Premier League matches unbeaten at home and try to gain some perspective after the loss.
“The loss has to come one day and Newcastle deserved it overall,” said Emery, who has turned the club’s fortunes around since replacing England great Steven Gerrard in October 2022. “I’m very proud for our supporters and very proud of the players of the way we did [the unbeaten run]. It’s finished because we lost after a very long time being successful here.”
“Always when you are losing it’s a little bit frustrating for the players and supporters, but we have to try to get the perspective we have now with everything we were doing,” he said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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