London, Feb 23 (IANS) Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes suffered a major setback following a 1-0 home loss to West Ham United.
Jarrod Bowen’s diving header in the 44th minute from Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross gave Graham Potter just his second league win as West Ham coach. Potter should be pleased with his side’s solid defensive performance against an Arsenal team that was well below its best, especially after Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off in the 73rd minute.
The defeat leaves Arsenal eight points behind Liverpool, who visits Manchester City on Sunday.
In a match filled with tension and late controversy, Manchester United staged a comeback after being 2-0 down away to Everton, who was denied a late penalty by VAR. Beto opened the scoring for Everton in the 19th minute, and Abdoulaye Doucoure doubled their lead in the 33rd minute with a close-range header following a blocked shot from Jack Harrison, reports Xinhua.
Everton looked comfortable until Bruno Fernandes curled in a free kick in the 77th minute and Manuel Ugarte leveled three minutes later with a powerful shot.
The home side thought they should have had a penalty deep in injury time when Ashley Young went down under a challenge from Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt, with Young’s shirt clearly pulled, but after initially awarding the penalty, referee Andrew Madley changed his decision after consulting with the VAR.
New Aston Villa signing Marcus Rashford provided two assists to another newcomer Marco Asensio in the 57th minute and then in the last minute to give Unai Emery’s side a 2-1 win at home to Chelsea, who had taken an early lead when Enzo Fernandez had an easy finish from Pedro Neto’s assist.
Matheus Cunha maintained his impressive form, scoring the only goal of the game to help Wolverhampton Wanderers secure a 1-0 away win over 10-man Bournemouth, dealing a blow to the home side’s European ambitions.
Elsewhere, Ipswich Town suffered a heavy 4-1 defeat at home to Tottenham. Crystal Palace continued its impressive season with a 2-0 win away to Fulham in the south-London derby. Bottom-of-the-table Southampton was thrashed 4-0 at home by Brighton.
On Friday night, Brentford won 4-0 away to Leicester City, further deepening the problems for the home side, who has now lost 10 of their last 11 Premier League games and haven’t scored at home in over two months.
–IANS
bc/