Arsenal can temporarily re-establish a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table when they travel to meet Leicester City in today’s clash at the King Power.
The Foxes failed to make their first-half dominance count in a 3-0 loss to Manchester United last weekend, while the Gunners beat Aston Villa 4-2 in one of the games of the season.
A combination of wasteful finishing and inspired goalkeeping from David De Gea, prevented Leicester from making the breakthrough at Old Trafford last weekend, where even Erik ten Hag admitted that his side’s first-half performance was “rubbish.”
However, some half-time tweaks turned the tide in Man United’s favour, and the red-hot Marcus Rashford made Leicester pay for their profligacy with a brace before Jadon Sancho came off the bench to put the cherry on top of the cake by scoring the third goal.
Having been handed a harsh reality check after thumping Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 on February 11 – Lilywhites fans would not mind their North London rivals suffering the same fate here – Leicester sit 14th in the rankings and four points clear of the drop zone with 23 games gone.
Brendan Rodgers’s side appeared to have turned a corner with a three-game winning run – no doubt sparked by the timely return of James Maddison – prior to their trip to Old Trafford, where the Red Devils extended Leicester’s run without a clean sheet in the Premier League to eight matches.
Furthermore, not since October have Rodgers’s men recorded a Premier League shut-out at the King Power Stadium, and the team who have lost five games from winning positions this season – the most in the league – are now welcoming the team who excel at winning from losing positions.
Karmic retribution felt so sweet for the travelling Arsenal fans at Villa Park, where ex-Gunner, Emiliano Martinez, who has made no bones about his negative feelings towards the club – appropriately played the villain arc with copious amounts of time-wasting before scoring the most unfortunate of unfortunate own goals.
Twice Villa took the lead through Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho, and twice Arsenal came back through BukayoSaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko, before Jorginho’s stunning effort rattled the bar and bounced off the head of Martinez into the back of the net.
The World Cup winner attempted to make amends by going up for a last-minute corner, but Gabriel Martinelli had the simple task of slotting home into an empty net when that did not pay off, and Martinez’s attempt to go from zero to hero in the other penalty area was blasted by former Arsenal boss,Unai Emery, after the game.
By pulling themselves out of their mid-season rut and ending a four-game winless run, Mikel Arteta’s charges sit two points clear of Manchester City, with a game in hand after the champions dropped more points away at Nottingham Forest, and the Gunners kick off a couple of hours before City return to action against Bournemouth this Saturday.
A sixth straight game without a clean sheet in all tournaments is a concern for Gunners, but no team has scored more than their 24 Premier League goals on the road so far this season – an average of two per game, and a 4-2 success over the Foxes in August marked Arsenal’s fourth Premier League win in a row against Leicester.
Today:
Everton v Aston Villa
Leicester City v Arsenal
West Ham v Nottm Forest
Leeds Utd v Southampton
Bournemouth v Man City
Crystal v Liverpool
Sunday:
Tottenham v Chelsea
