FOOTBALL – Eberechi Eze delivered a telling blow to his former team by scoring his first Premier League goal for Arsenal in a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace yesterday to extend the North London club’s lead at the top of the standings.
Eze, who spent five seasons at Selhurst Park before Arsenal signed him in August, struck in the 39th minute when Gabriel Magalhaes headed Declan Rice’s free kick into his path.
The midfielder leapt to steer a first-time finish past Dean Henderson.
The 27-year-old midfielder, who was a key part of Palace’s victorious FA Cup run last season, did not celebrate the goal.
The victory extended Arsenal’s unbeaten run to six league matches and 10 games in all competitions, and opened up a four-point cushion over second-placed Bournemouth with 22 points after nine games.
Mikel Arteta’s team also opened up a six-point lead over rivals Manchester City, who are fourth after their 1-0 loss yesterday at Aston Villa.
The first half had few attempts for either team, with Leandro Trossard’s shot saved by Dean Henderson.
The second half at the Emirates Stadium had a far different feel as Arsenal pressed for a second goal, with a flurry of chances including a chance at an easy tap-in for Bukayo Saka that Palace defender Marc Guehi scrambled to boot clear.
A frenzied series of Arsenal shots had Gabriel’s header cannon off the bar and Rice and Saka both go close.
Manchester City suffered their first loss since August as Matty Cash’s first-half strike secured a 1-0 victory for Aston Villa in the Premier League, the hosts’ fourth straight win in the competition.
City fell to fourth in the standings after their nine-match unbeaten run in all competitions came to an end, six points behind leaders Arsenal. Villa rose to seventh, a point below City.
Villa looked to find Ollie Watkins with long balls and counters early on, while Emiliano Buendia’s shot went too high in the third minute.
Tijjani Reijnders almost put City ahead in the sixth minute but the midfielder’s shot went over the bar.
The hosts took the lead in the 19th minute from Buendia’s corner, as Cash received the ball just outside the box and fired with his left foot into the bottom right corner past a helpless City goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said his side were not aggressive enough as they succumbed to their first loss since August in Sunday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat at Aston Villa, but he insisted that his players were getting better.
City suffered back-to-back losses in August, but picked up 13 points in their next five league matches and went unbeaten in nine matches in all competitions before the defeat at Villa Park.
“We started a really good game. In general we were much better in the second half but in the end we could not score,” Guardiola told Sky Sports.
Two headed goals by Tottenham Hotspur’s Micky van de Ven helped his side to a 3-0 Premier League win over Everton as the visitors became the first team to win in the Merseyside club’s new stadium.
Tottenham made a sluggish start but took the lead in the 19th minute when Dutch defender Van de Ven nodded in from virtually on the goal line following a corner.
Jake O’Brien thought he had equalised soon after but his powerful header was disallowed for an infringement on Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
Van de Ven doubled Tottenham’s lead with another close-range header from another corner in first-half stoppage time to leave Everton with a mountain to climb.
Vicario made some superb saves in the second half as Tottenham protected their advantage and substitute Pape Matar Sarr headed a late third to secure the victory that lifted Tottenham to third in the table with 17 points from nine games.
Sean Dyche’s first Premier League match in charge of Nottingham Forest ended in defeat as Bournemouth climbed to second place in the table with a 2-0 victory at the Vitality Stadium.
Forest were hoping to build on momentum from Thursday night’s 2-0 Europa League win over Porto -- their first victory across all competitions since August.
Instead, they fell behind when Marcus Tavernier opened the scoring directly from a 25th-minute corner.
Lyle Foster’s 95th-minute heroics for Burnley broke the hearts of a spirited Wolves side that came back from two goals down in the first half, as the 3-2 defeat condemned Vitor Pereira’s side to remain the only winless side in England’s top four divisions.
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