Arsenal stun Chelsea with 3-1 win, Everton move second

Arsenal, missing several first-choice players, took the lead in the 35th minute when Lacazette sent Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy the wrong way from the spot after Kieran Tierney was adjudged to have been clipped in the box by Reece James.

Nine minutes later, Xhaka lifted an unstoppable freekick over the wall and beyond Mendy’s dive.

A visibly frustrated Chelsea coach Frank Lampard tried to turn the tide at halftime when he replaced out-of-form Germany striker Timo Werner with winger Callum Hudson-Odoi and Mateo Kovacic with Jorginho.

But Chelsea were only marginally more threatening for most of the second half and Arsenal sealed the win in the 56th minute when Saka floated what looked like a cross over Mendy and the ball hit the far post and went in.

Chelsea snatched a consolation goal with five minutes to go when Tammy Abraham converted a cross by Hudson-Odoi.

Jorginho could have set up a tense finale but his poorly taken penalty was saved by Bernd Leno.

“It’s a really important win for us. Some of the performances haven’t been enough to win football matches and that is something difficult to handle over time,” Arteta said.

“We needed points and today we have done it in a really convincing way,” he said. “It’s been some difficult weeks.”

Arsenal had failed to win any of their previous seven league games – losing five of them – and the win lifted them to 14th place in the table. Chelsea are sixth after their third consecutive away defeat.

The Gunners went into the game with talk of a relegation battle swirling around the Emirates Stadium after their worst showing in the league so far in nearly 50 years.

To compound their problems, they were missing David Luiz and former Chelsea midfielder Willian, who felt unwell. Both were left out as a precaution despite testing negative for the coronavirus.

Brazilian Gabriel was sidelined after being in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19 and out-of-form striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was on the bench after an injury worry.

But Arsenal looked hungry for a win right from the kickoff and understudies Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli, back from injury, threatened Chelsea with their pace.

Lampard was left to lament Chelsea’s slow start.

“Didn’t do enough first half, better second half but we had too much to do at that point,” he told reporters. “All the basics were wrong.”

Sigurdsson gives Everton 1-0 win at Sheffield United

Everton moved two places up to second in the Premier League and finished in the top four during the Christmas holiday period for the first time in 16 years after a late Gylfi Sigurdsson goal gave them a 1-0 win at bottom team Sheffield United on Saturday.

The result left Everton on 29 points from 15 games, two behind champions and leaders Liverpool who are at home to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, while the winless Blades stayed rooted to the bottom with two points.

Attacking midfielder Sigurdsson revealed he was an unlikely match-winner after Everton boss Carlo Ancelotti shifted him to a deeper role during the match.

“The gaffer moved me to defensive midfielder so I’m not sure what I was doing in the box for the goal,” the Icelandic international told the BBC.

“We needed to get three points, we knew it would be tough coming here. I think they have been quite unlucky this season, they have been in a lot of games where they have lost by the one goal so they are not a bad team.

“It is fantastic, we’ve picked up after a dip in form so we would like to keep this going. Nice to be second in the league.”

Missing several key players, Everton looked subdued in the first half and nearly fell behind in the 16th minute as Ben Godfrey cleared David McGoldrick’s scrambled shot off the line.

The visitors came close in the 29th when Dominic Calvert-Lewin superbly chested down a long pass by Michael Keane and unleashed a ferocious volley from the edge of the penalty area just wide of the far post.

Oliver Burke slammed a close-range shot from a tight angle across the face of goal at the other end on the stroke of halftime before the game fizzed out in the second half and appeared to be heading for a barren draw.

But Sigurdsson struck in the 80th minute, planting a calm shot past goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale into the far corner after good work from substitute Bernard and midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure, who took advantage of sloppy defending.

Dominant Man City beat Newcastle 2-0 to go fifth

Manchester City breezed to a 2-0 home win over Newcastle United thanks to goals in each half from Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres, a result that lifted them to fifth in the Premier League on Saturday.

On a rainy, cold night at the Etihad Stadium, Newcastle boss Steve Bruce started with a five-man backline but there was little his side could do to keep control of City’s array of attacking talent.

The home side went ahead in the 14th minute when Gundogan calmly fired home Raheem Sterling’s pass from close range after a typically patient and incisive build-up from Pep Guardiola’s side.

With City dominant in possession throughout, it took until the sixth minute of the second half for Newcastle to register a shot on target, but all it did was provoke the hosts even more, and four minutes later they went 2-0 up.

A concerted attack that ebbed and flowed across the field ended when Newcastle defender Federico Fernandez could only deflect a cross from Joao Cancelo into the path of Ferran Torres, who scored with a simple finish.

Torres, who spurned a couple of other decent chances on the night, was replaced by Sergio Aguero in the 77th minute. He forced a superb save from Newcastle keeper Karl Darlow minutes after coming on, but there was to be no further goals as City coasted to victory.

While City’s impressive performance moved them up to 26 points after 14 games, Guardiola remained cautious about the team’s title prospects in what is turning out to be a topsy turvy season, with teams also having to cope with problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are far away from the top. Last week we were 10th in the table, all the season is up and down. There are weird results for everyone, this season you have to be calm in the good and the bad moments,” Guardiola, whose side travel to second-placed Everton on Monday, told reporters.

“That is the tempo we need to play. Today our positional game was perfect, unfortunately we could not score more goals but it is a good result and three more points.

“In 45 hours we have another game at Goodison Park … tomorrow the players have to regenerate and prepare in one day. This pandemic puts us in an extreme situation, but that’s how England likes it so we accept it.”

Newcastle, who are 12th on 18 points, host league leaders Liverpool on Wednesday.

REUTERS