LONDON
\nArsenal maintained control of the Premier League \u200ctitle race as they chiselled out a nervy 2-1 win over London rivals Chelsea to open up a five-point lead at the top of the table on Sunday. Jurrien Timber\u2019s 66th-minute header from a Declan Rice corner ensured Arsenal took three precious points but it was an afternoon of nerves in north London.
\nIt was far from pretty but Mikel Arteta\u2019s side, and the fans who squirmed through the closing minutes, will not care about that as a first title since 2004 edged a little closer. Arsenal moved to 64 points from 29 games with sole chasers Manchester City, who have played a game fewer, on 59.
\nDefender William Saliba had given Arsenal the lead in the 21st minute from a trademark corner routine. But it had looked as though an own goal by Piero Hincapie just before halftime would prove costly for \u200cthe hosts until \u200cTimber came to their rescue. Chelsea, whose six-match unbeaten league sequence under new \u200cmanager Liam Rosenior was halted, ended the match with 10 men after Pedro Neto was sent off for a second yellow card. Arsenal fans will hope that the remaining nine games of the Premier League run-in are less fraught than this one.
\nCORNER KINGS
\nIt was not a fluent showing as they extended their unbeaten league run against Chelsea to nine games and they had to resort to the tactic that has served them so well this season. With both their goals coming from corners, Arsenal have now scored 16 times from that route this season in the Premier League, the joint-most by any side in a single \u200ccampaign.
\nThey were given a taste of their own medicine though \u200cwith Hincapie\u2019s own goal also coming from a corner.There were puffed cheeks aplenty too as the referee blew \u200cthe final whistle after a period of stoppage time that Arsenal spent hanging on against Chelsea\u2019s \u200c10 men.
\nLast weekend\u2019s drubbing of north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur had eased the mounting pressure after Arsenal\u2019s form had begun to waver in recent weeks.Sixth-placed Chelsea proved a far sterner test though as they sought to boost their hopes of a top-five finish.
\nArsenal got ahead when Captain Bukayo Saka\u2019s deep corner was headed back across goal \u200cby Gabriel and fellow defender Saliba nodded goalwards with the ball going in off Chelsea\u2019s Mamadou Sarr, although Saliba was credited with the goal. They looked in control for much of the first half but wobbled before halftime as they fell foul of Chelsea\u2019s own set-piece acumen.
\nArsenal keeper David Raya had just made a reflex save to keep out a header by Jorrel Hato but from an almost identical corner swung in by Reece James he was helpless as the ball skimmed off the head of Hincapie and into the net.
\nThe nerves really began to fray in the second half as Chelsea looked the more threatening side with Enzo Fernandez forcing Raya to turn his low shot around the post and then Joao Pedro heading the resulting corner straight at him. When Rice\u2019s corner left Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez floundering, Timber was there to restore Arsenal\u2019s lead.
\nNeto was booked for dissent in the aftermath and three minutes later got himself sent off for a foul on Gabriel Martinelli. Yet Chelsea ended strongly and substitute Alejandro Garnacho almost snatched a point with his cross being clawed out by Raya before Liam Delap poked in from close range but Arsenal were saved by an offside flag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Arsenal maintained control of the Premier League \u200ctitle race as they chiselled out a nervy 2-1 win over London rivals Chelsea to open up a five-point lead at the top of the table on Sunday. Jurrien Timber\u2019s 66th-minute header from a Declan Rice corner ensured Arsenal took three precious points but it was an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":94484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94473","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\/94473","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=94473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94488,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94473\/revisions\/94488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}