LONDON
\nArsenal struck late to beat Nottingham Forest and keep the pressure on Premier League leaders Manchester City on Sunday, while struggling Manchester United dropped more points in a draw at Leeds.
\nThe Gunners faced Forest a day after pacesetters City celebrated a seventh win in seven games at home to Ipswich \u2014 shrugging off the fallout from the club\u2019s guilty verdict for serious financial irregularities.
\nDefending champions Arsenal huffed and puffed against Oliver Glasner\u2019s struggling side but finally secured the breakthrough when substitute Noni Madueke\u2019s effort found the net in the 80th minute after a deflection off Jair Cunha.
\nThe goal was Arsenal\u2019s only shot on target in a disjointed performance that lacked attacking quality, but they are showing an impressive ability to grind out results when not at their best.
\nThe 1-0 victory moved Mikel Arteta\u2019s side back up to second in the table, three points behind leaders City, while Forest, who failed to capitalize on a clutch of late chances, are now in the relegation zone. \u201cWe had to earn it until the last second,\u201d Arteta told the BBC. \u201cThey are a well-coached team and hard to break down.
\n\u201cWe had to take risks, they are a dangerous team. We had to manage the emotional part really well. We stayed focused and the finishers made a huge impact.\u201d
\nEarlier, Manchester United traveled to the home of bitter rivals Leeds desperate to find a spark but were forced to settle for a 1-1 draw after Dominic Calvert-Lewin canceled out Bryan Mbeumo\u2019s first-half opener.
\nUnited have just one win in seven league games this season and are winless in their past six matches in all competitions. Manager Michael Carrick \u2014 in his first full season in charge \u2014 is scrambling for answers, with his team looking short of quality and confidence.
\nThe sense of a growing crisis at Old Trafford was exacerbated by a midweek outburst from defender Lisandro Martinez, who took aim at the United hierarchy after a 2-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.
\nCarrick chose to focus on the positives after Sunday\u2019s game at Elland Road, insisting that the draw was a step in the right direction. \u201cIf there\u2019s any weakness, it gets found out today,\u201d he told Sky Sports.
\n\u201cI could feel before the game that the players were ready for it. It wasn\u2019t perfect, our confidence isn\u2019t sky-high, but the players were trying to do the right things.
\n\u201cIn moments we looked really good. Defended really well as a team.\u201d Argentina center-back Martinez gave an explosive interview in Spain on Tuesday during which he criticized the lack of investment in the summer transfer window. Carrick insisted on Friday that United had \u201cmoved on\u201d from the incident and Martinez was named in the starting line-up.
\nMbeumo, playing as United\u2019s target man, wasted a couple of chances but broke the deadlock in the 35th minute when he guided a Youri Tielemans cross into the bottom corner for his fourth goal of the season.
\nLeeds put the visitors under sustained pressure after the break and were level in the 51st minute when England forward Calvert-Lewin controlled the ball on his chest and finished at full stretch after Tarik Muharemovic\u2019s header from a corner.
\nUnited, 13th in the table, have their fewest wins at this stage of a top-flight campaign since 1986\/87. Elsewhere on Sunday, Brighton hammered Crystal Palace 5-0, including a sensational Diego Gomez effort from the halfway line.
\nOnly three sides in Premier League history have scored more goals in their first seven games of a season than Brighton\u2019s haul of 23. Bournemouth beat 10-man Sunderland 2-0 with goals from Marcus Tavernier and Evanilson for their first league win of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Arsenal struck late to beat Nottingham Forest and keep the pressure on Premier League leaders Manchester City on Sunday, while struggling Manchester United dropped more points in a draw at Leeds. The Gunners faced Forest a day after pacesetters City celebrated a seventh win in seven games at home to Ipswich \u2014 shrugging off …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":104569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104589,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104564\/revisions\/104589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}