Arsenal won the London derby against Chelsea 2-1 today, remaining alone at the top of the English Premier League, temporarily five points ahead of Manchester City, although having played one more game.
The 28th-round clash was highly competitive, with key moments coming from set-pieces, particularly corners, which led to all three goals.
Arsenal opened the scoring in the 21st minute when Gabriel rose and assisted William Saliba, who also deflected the ball with his head; the ball hit central Mamadou Sarr before entering the net.
Chelsea equalized at 45+2 minutes when Piero Hincapie inadvertently redirected the ball into his own goal. In the previous corner, Declan Rice appeared to handle the ball while leaning on an opponent, but neither the referee nor VAR acted on the protest.
Chelsea dominated the second half and created continuous danger, but Arsenal scored again, once more from a corner, with Dutch defender Jurrien Timber heading in at 66 minutes.
Chelsea suffered another blow in the 70th minute when Portuguese forward Pedro Neto was sent off after a second yellow card for a foul, only three minutes after receiving his first for dissent.
In the final minutes, Chelsea pushed forward again, but goalkeeper David Raya preserved the three points with a series of high-level saves throughout the match.
Arsenal now has 64 points, five more than Manchester City, with one game in hand. The provisional third place is held by Manchester United, tied with Aston Villa at 51 points, though Villa has only won 1 of their last 6 possible points.
Chelsea, with just two points from the last nine available, continues to slide and is now sixth with 45 points.
Earlier, Bruno Fernandes was decisive as Manchester United defeated Crystal Palace 2-1, scoring a penalty in the 57th minute to equalize and assisting Benjamin Sesko for the 2-1 winner in the 65th minute, after Maxence Lacroix had been sent off on the penalty incident.
Meanwhile, Fulham, coached by Marco Silva, added to Tottenham’s (with João Palhinha) difficult run with a 2-1 victory, moving up to ninth with 40 points, while Tottenham fell to 16th with only 29 points, just four above the relegation zone.
Vítor Pereira failed to capitalize on the Spurs and West Ham losses as his Nottingham Forest lost 2-1 at Brighton, remaining in 17th with 27 points.
