Premier League: Arsenal inflict first league defeat on Man Utd boss Solskjaer

Arsenal 2 Manchester United 0

Arsenal inflicted the first league defeat on Man Utd manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a 2-0 victory at the Emirates that takes them into the top four. The Gunners enjoyed a wonderful weekend, what with Tottenham’s defeat at Southampton and Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at home to Wolves, and they are now fourth, two points clear of United and just a point shy of Spurs, who last month enjoyed a ten-point advantage over their north London rivals.

“We are disappointed with the result but looking at the performance, you cannot say it was a game we deserved to lose,” said Solskjaer. “We have won games we have not deserved to win, and today we lost a game we did not deserve to lose... It has been fantastic so far but today is the the lowest we have been because we lost and missed the chance to put pressure on Spurs.”

Soft goals

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United were a pale imitation of the side that stunned Paris Saint-Germain in last week’s Champions League and they were inaccurate in much of what they did. Nonetheless, they were unfortunate in the way they conceded their goals, going behind in the first half to Granit Xhaka’s swerving shot that took David de Gea by surprise, and then giving away a soft penalty for Fred’s clumsy challenge on Alexandre Lacazette.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converted the spot-kick on 69 minutes and at no point thereafter did United threaten to launch a fightback like the one PSG experienced.

Emery ecstatic

Arsenal boss Unai Emery was delighted with the performance of his team, particularly after their feeble 3-1 capitulation to Rennes in Thursday’s Europa League tie.

“I’m very proud of our players,” he said. “Being competitive like today for 90 minutes can give us a stronger mentality. We are going to think of the next Premier League match, against Newcastle here, but that is in three weeks and now our focus is the Europa League on Thursday. That is a very important match after what happened away.”

Liverpool 4 Burnley 2

Liverpool maintained the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the table with a 4-2 win against Burnley at Anfield. The result leaves the Reds a point behind the Sky Blues, who beat Watford 3-1 on Saturday, with eight games of the campaign remaining.

In blowy conditions Burnley took the lead on six minutes when Ashley Westwood’s corner made its way straight over keeper Allison and into the Liverpool net, but Roberto Firmino soon levelled for the hosts after Clarets’ keeper Tom Heaton had fumbled Mohamed Salah’s cross.

Sadio Mane then gave Liverpool the lead and Firmino extended the Reds’ advantage. And although Johann Berg Gudmundsson got Burnley’s second on 91 minutes, Mane added a fourth for the Reds two minutes later.

“The message from today is that nobody gets rid of us, if we play as we played today,” said Klopp. “We had the perfect mixture of fighting the opponent, fighting the circumstances and playing football. That was really good and I liked it.”

Chelsea 1 Wolves 1

Chelsea scrapped a draw a home to Wolves thanks to a stoppage time goal from Eden Hazard but it was a result that leaves the Blues in sixth, three points behind Arsenal, although they have a game in hand on the Gunners.

“We missed a very great opportunity today,” conceded Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri, whose saw his side go behind to a strike from Raul Jimenez on 56 minutes. It was the only attempt on target by the visitors but Chelsea were similarly insufficient in the creative department in a match that won’t linger long in the memory.

“We made mistakes,” added Sarri. “Today we played against a team that didn’t want to play.”

Tight at the top

The combination of results over the weekend leaves Man City and Liverpool way out in front and still separated by a single point. But behind them, just four points separate Spurs in third and Chelsea in sixth, although the Blues have a game in hand. Arsenal and Man United are fourth and fifth respectively.