By Shereefdeen Ahmad
Arsenal held their nerves to claim a 3-2 victory over Tottenham in the North Londerby on Sunday, maintaining the top spot in the Premier League title race.
The Gunners ran riot on the Spurs with a blasting three-goal lead, completely taking charge of the game before the break.
Mikel Arteta’s men hit the front at the 15th minute after Bukayo Saka’s powerful corner forced Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to head home into his own net.
Bukayo Saka added the second before Kai Havertz netted in the 38th minute to wrap up a comfortable 3-0 win in the halftime.
However, it turned out to be a game of two halves, after Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min resurrected the Tottenham who defied the odds of throwing in the towel at the 64th minute, reducing the deficit and mounting the pressure on the Gunners who had to hold their nerves to secure the three points on 3-2 win.
The defeat means a lot for the fifth-placed Tottenham as their hope to qualifying
for the next season’s Champions League is hanging in the balance.
Though the Spurs have two games in hand, they remain seven points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa.
Meanwhile, Arsenal now sit on top with a point over Man City who beat struggling Nottingham Forest 2-0 later in the day.
The Gunners are putting it all in the title race with Pep Guardiola’s team which is hoping to clinch an unprecedented fourth successive English title if they win their last four matches.
Arteta’s men suffered a heavy frustration following a home defeat against Aston Villa and a Champions League quarter final exit to Bayern Munich weeks ago, but the huge 5-0 win over arch rivals Chelsea in their last match indicated a remarkable comeback to winning ways.
More Work and Prayers for the Gunners
Despite the impressive bounce back to keep their hopes alive, Arsenal still have more work and prayer to do over the Citizens who have a game at hand, and the latter’s Champions league exit to Real Madrid means they could even pay more attention to the race than ever.
Manchester City mounted the pressure on Arsenal after securing a 2-0 win over struggling Nottingham Forest, thanks to goals Josko Gvardiol and Erling Haaland.
Pep Guardiola’s team took the lead after Croatia defender Gvardiol headed home a corner curled in by Kevin De Bruyne at the 30th minute, and Erling Haaland completed the scoring at the 71st minute courtesy an immaculate pass from the same Kelvin De Bruyne.
Forest, who are on the brink of the danger zone with just a point, squandered many chances — including two sitters from forward Chris Wood— to level up the game
With four games to wrap up the season for City, Arsenal need to win all their three matches left and pray Guardiola’s team slump to a defeat.
It’s now a duel between the Gunners and the Cityzens. Liverpool were on the track in the title race but went awry weeks ago, having just won just one of their past five matches and also crashing out of the Europa league.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Sunday, Bournemouth put 3-0 past Brighton after
Marcos Senesi, Enes Unai and Justin Kluivert each registered their names on the scoresheet.