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LONDON: Mikel Arteta urged Arsenal to dig deep after a shock 1-0 defeat at Everton dented the Premier League leaders’ title bid, while Liverpool’s troubled season hit a new low with a woeful 3-0 loss at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
Arteta’s side were beaten for just the second time in 20 league games this season as James Tarkowski headed Everton’s winner in the 60th minute.
The Gunners’ only other league defeat came at Manchester United in September.
Arsenal still lead second placed Manchester City by five points, but the champions can close the gap to two points if they win at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
“This is not going to be a rose pathway,” said Arteta of Arsenal’s road to the title. “This is going to be tricky and we will have to dig in and play much better than we did today.”
Everton came into the game on a run of four league defeats at Goodison Park for the first time since 1958. That disastrous form cost Frank Lampard his job and Sean Dyche’s appointment got the desired bounce with a first win in 11 games.
“The minimum requirement is maximum effort and we saw that today,” said Dyche after his first game in charge.
While third-bottom Everton boosted their bid to avoid relegation, their Merseyside rivals Liverpool crashed to a fourth defeat in their last seven games in all competitions, a miserable run featuring only one win.
Jurgen Klopp’s side are languishing in 10th place, 10 points adrift of the top four amid their worst season of Klopp’s seven-year reign.
It is the first time since 2012 that Liverpool have lost three successive away league games, while they have already conceded more league goals this season than they did in the entirety of last term.
Facing a struggling team who kicked off in the relegation zone, Liverpool immediately crumbled as Joel Matip deflected Hwang Hee-chan’s cross into his own net after five minutes.
Wolves debutant Craig Dawson doubled the lead after 12 minutes when the defender smashed in from 10 yards.
With Wolves fans taunting Klopp with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning”, Ruben Neves sealed the rout with a 71st minute finish from Adama Traore’s cross.
UNITED SURVIVE CASEMIRO DISMISSAL
Ten-man Manchester United cemented their grip on third place with a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace.
Two days before the anniversary of the 1958 Munich air crash that killed eight United players on the way home from a match against Red Star Belgrade, Old Trafford paid an emotional pre-match tribute to the victims of the tragedy.
In the seventh minute, United were awarded a penalty after VAR showed Will Hughes handled Marcus Rashford’s cross, with Bruno Fernandes coolly converting from the spot.
Rashford struck in the 62nd minute with a composed finish from Luke Shaw’s cross.
United were reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute when Brazil midfielder Casemiro grabbed Will Hughes by the throat.
Jeff Schlupp’s 76th minute strike set up a tense finish but United held on to win six successive home league games for the first time since 2017.
Leicester City twice came from behind to win 4-2 at Aston Villa.
Villa went ahead after 10 minutes through Ollie Watkins, but James Maddison levelled two minutes later.
Unai Emery’s men regained the lead with a 32nd minute own goal from Leicester debutant Harry Souttar.
But Leicester equalised again in the 41st minute through Kelechi Iheanacho and Tete netted on his debut in first half stoppage-time before Dennis Praet wrapped up the points in the 79th minute.
Brentford climbed to seventh place and pushed bottom of the table Southampton deeper into trouble with a 3-0 win at the Community Stadium, the goals coming from Ben Mee, Bryan Mbeumo and Mathias Jensen.
Kaoru Mitoma’s 87th minute header gave sixth placed Brighton & Hove Albion a 1-0 victory against second bottom Bournemouth.
CHELSEA CAN’T BUY A GOAL
On Friday night, Chelsea’s British record signing Enzo Fernandez got his first taste of Premier League football in a 0-0 draw against his new club’s visiting neighbours Fulham in a lively but ultimately disappointing derby.
The World Cup-winning midfielder, who cost Chelsea’s American owners nearly 107 million pounds ($128.98 million) from Benfica, looked comfortable and showed touches of class, spraying pinpoint passes and timing his tackles well.
But it was Fulham who finished the game happier at Stamford Bridge, having earned four points from their wealthy neighbours in two league games this season, moving them to 32 points, two clear of Chelsea, who have a game in hand.
Chelsea manager Graham Potter pleaded for time to gel his expensive collection of new stars as Mykhailo Mudryk was also given his Stamford Bridge bow, while Noni Madueke and David Datro Fofana came off the bench for their Premier League debuts.
Chelsea’s record investment of over 300 million in the January window took the total spend on players in their first season under new ownership to over half a billion.
“New players are adapting to a new country and a new league. It’s not straightforward. When the price tag is what it is questions will be asked, it’s the nature of the business,” said Potter.
“The decision we took in the window you can see the profile in terms of age. We feel we have a very strong group of players. We have to gel and become a really good team. That’s where the work is.”
Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2023
