April 12 (Reuters) – Arsenal were held to a 1-1 home draw by Brentford on Saturday, meaning Liverpool are three wins from clinching the Premier League crown, while Manchester City moved back into the top four with a 5-2 comeback victory over visiting Crystal Palace.
Nottingham Forest failed to consolidate third place after a 1-0 home defeat by Everton, Aston Villa won 3-0 at Southampton, while Brighton & Hove Albion were held 2-2 at home by Leicester City, who scored a league goal for the first time since January.
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With Arsenal winning two of their last seven league matches, they now have 63 points and trail Liverpool, who play West Ham United on Sunday, by 10 points having played a game more.
Forest stay third on 57 despite their home loss, two points clear of City and a further point ahead of Villa in fifth. Sixth-placed Chelsea, who have 53, host Ipswich Town on Sunday.
Arsenal, riding high after their Champions League quarter-final first leg victory over Real Madrid in midweek, struggled to break down a well-organised Brentford side.
However, Thomas Partey put the hosts in front just after the hour mark following great work from Declan Rice before Wissa levelled with a hooked 74th-minute finish.
Arsenal have now dropped 16 points from winning positions this term – one fewer than in the past two campaigns combined.
“An opportunity missed for sure because we wanted to win and increase our opportunities in the league,” Arteta told the BBC. “But we haven’t managed to do that. We have to be critical with ourselves, especially with the way we conceded the goal.
DE BRUYNE SHINES
City were 2-0 down inside 21 minutes when Eberechi Eze grabbed the opener after Palace carved open the home side’s defence before Chris Richards scored from a set-piece.
But Kevin De Bruyne halved the deficit with a free kick before his cushioned header found its way to Omar Marmoush, who blasted the ball into the net after Ilkay Gundogan missed.
City dominated the second half and De Bruyne assisted Mateo Kovacic for the third goal 80 seconds after the restart.
Goalkeeper Ederson then claimed his fourth assist of the season when he set James McAtee on his way with a long ball while Nico O’Reilly completed the rout.
“I want to go away with a Champions League (spot) for this team because they deserve it,” said Belgian De Bruyne, who is leaving the club at the end of the season.
“We’ve been in the Champions League for the nine, 10 years that I’ve been here so I hope we can do that for the team next year.”
FOREST STUNNED
Forest struggled to get going against Everton, who scored the only goal in added time through Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Forest had a corner which was cleared and as Everton ran up the other end, Dwight McNeil found Doucoure who netted to give the visitors their first win in seven games.
“I think we can’t have it better than that, when you play a football game, to score a last-minute goal. It was a terrific moment for the team,” Doucoure said.
Villa beat Southampton with goals from substitutes Ollie Watkins, Donyell Malen and John McGinn, even though their Spanish forward Marco Asensio missed two penalties.
Leicester, on the verge of relegation, gave their fans reason to cheer as they finally scored at Brighton when Stephy Mavididi netted the club’s first goal in nine league games.
Two Joao Pedro penalties were not enough for Brighton to win as Caleb Okoli levelled late on to earn Leicester a rare point.
Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Rohith reports on soccer, tennis, cricket, MotoGP and many more sports. He previously worked at Sportskeeda and has been a sports journalist for more than a decade.
