Ten-man Liverpool twice had to battle back from behind before they snared a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham – but their dropped points for the second straight match gave hope to the Reds’ title rivals.
Arsenal, though, failed to take advantage.
A 0-0 draw at home to lowly Everton left the third-placed Gunners still six points behind Liverpool and they’ll see it as a big opportunity missed.
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“Well, I feel very disappointed not to win the game because obviously there is a team that deserves to win. There is only one, which is Arsenal,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told reporters after his side’s second straight Premier League draw.
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“We gave nothing away. No shots conceded, we dominated the direct play, didn’t allow them to run, no set-pieces. Our high press was excellent. We generated the chances but the last 20 metres was missing to score goals.
“At the end, you have to try to generate the highest winning probability. When you draw the game you want more. Even if we win it we always want more, but I cannot ask much more from the boys apart from putting the ball in the net.”
Undermined by Andy Robertson’s 17th-minute red card, Liverpool actually did well to earn a point at Anfield on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) – but they could even have delivered a win after sustained late pressure following Diogo Jota’s equaliser in the 86th minute.
Fulham led for the first time after Andreas Pereira’s 11th-minute volley deflected into the net off Robertson, who was sent off six minutes later for bringing down Harry Wilson as the last man and denying a goal-scoring opportunity.
Cody Gakpo levelled just after half-time by heading in a cross from Mohamed Salah, who registered his 100th assist for Liverpool in all competitions.
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Substitute Rodrigo Muniz’s flick put Fulham back ahead in the 76th, only for Jota to run onto Darwin Nunez’s pass, turn his marker and drive home a finish from the edge of the area.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot was proud of the way his troops backed up from a midweek Champions League assignment away to Girona.
“I think it’s exactly the opposite from the Girona game, where I was pleased with the result [1-0], but not with the performance,” Slot said. “Now I’m very, very, very happy about the performance. Couldn’t have asked for more.
“Of course, not with the result, because if you drop points in a home game against Fulham that’s definitely not what you expect and what you want, but being two times a goal down, so many things go against you, except for one thing, that is our players and our fans, they were outstanding today.”
Emi Martinez’s wonder save for Aston Villa proved to be in vain.
In the 60th minute, the Argentina international was standing slightly off his line as a header by Nottingham Forest’s Nicolas Dominguez went past him.
Martinez stuck out his left hand behind him and somehow managed to drop the ball down onto the ground and scoop it away from off the line in the same motion.
Villa went ahead three minutes later through Jhon Duran, only for goals by Nikola Milenković in the 87th and Anthony Elanga in the third minute of stoppage time to clinch a 2-1 win for Forest.
Forest moved up to fourth place above Manchester City, which hosts Manchester United in the derby on Sunday.
Manager Gary O’Neil will do well to survive his latest damaging defeat with Wolves after Ipswich won 2-1 at Molineux.
Ipswich prevailed thanks to Jack Taylor’s winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time in a match between teams in the relegation zone.
O’Neil has led Wolves to only two victories in the league this season, and three since March.
On Monday, after losing at West Ham 2-1, O’Neil expressed his disappointment at losing the connection with Wolves’ fans and also aimed some criticism at the club’s owners for sanctioning the sale of many of their top players over the last two years.
There were boos at half-time and full-time at Molineux, with Wolves staying in next-to-last place and dropping three points behind third-to-last Ipswich.
Ruud van Nistelrooy suffered his first loss with Leicester – and it was a big one.
The Foxes were thrashed 4-0 at Newcastle, with Jacob Murphy scoring twice and Alexander Isak nodding in his seventh goal of the campaign. Bruno Guimaraes netted the other one.
Van Nistelrooy, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star striker, was brought in to replace the fired Steve Cooper and earned a win and a draw — both at home — in his first two games in charge, but this felt like a rude awakening.
with AAP
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