The first goal could barely have come earlier – and the winning goal couldn’t have been scored any later.
Arsenal went through a rollercoaster of emotions when pulling off a stirring second-half recovery to beat Bournemouth 3-2 and stay in control of the Premier League title race on Saturday.
Rocked by conceding after just 9.11 seconds for the second-fastest recorded goal in Premier League history, the leaders completed their comeback when substitute Reiss Nelson smashed home a left-foot shot from the edge of the area in the seventh minute of stoppage time with virtually the last kick of the game.
“It was madness from the first second,” said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, whose team maintained their five-point lead over Manchester City with 12 games left.
City did their part in Saturday’s early game, beating Newcastle 2-0 at home through goals by Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva.
The response by Arteta’s team ended up being extraordinary, with Arsenal’s three goals — from Thomas Partey, Ben White and, in thrilling fashion, Nelson — coming over the final half-and-hour just when it looked like relegation-threatened Bournemouth would pull off the most unlikely of victories.
Just as big a goal came at Stamford Bridge, where Wesley Fofana headed in off a corner to earn Chelsea a 1-0 win over Leeds and ease the pressure on manager Graham Potter.
It was only a second win in the last 11 games in all competitions for Chelsea, who are still mid-table despite spending $US630 million ($A931 million) over two transfer windows.
It’s left Potter clinging to his job but he has some respite, at least until Tuesday when Chelsea must come back from 1-0 down to Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of their last-16 tie in the Champions League.
Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe. (Photo by James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)
“We’ve had to suffer. It’s been a challenging period,” Potter said. “We were the team who had something to lose so it was great character from the players.”
West Ham manager David Moyes felt the ire of his own fans after an alarming 4-0 loss at Brighton.
“You don’t know what you’re doing” and “Sacked in the morning” were some of the chants coming Moyes’ way as West Ham’s winless away run in the league extended to 11 matches after a feeble display.
The Hammers are 16th in the 20-team league, two points above the relegation zone.
“There was anger from everybody — anger from the supporters, anger from the manager, the players are angry,” Moyes said.
Brighton overwhelmed West Ham and scored through a penalty from Alexis Mac Allister, tap-ins by Joel Veltman and Kaoru Mitoma, and a late strike from Danny Welbeck.
A bad week for Tottenham got worse with a 1-0 loss at Wolverhampton that kept the race for Champions League qualification wide open.
Three days after a defeat at Sheffield United in the FA Cup, Tottenham were poor at Molineux against a team fighting relegation, Adama Traore scoring the 82nd-minute winner.
Tottenham stayed fourth, but Newcastle, fifth, and Liverpool, sixth, both have two games in hand.
Aston Villa won at home to Crystal Palace 1-0 thanks to an own-goal by Joachim Andersen.
It proved a miserable afternoon for Socceroo Harry Souttar too. He headed against the bar in the final moments when he really should scored the last-gasp equaliser in Leicester’s 1-0 defeat to fellow strugglers Southampton.
Southampton moved to next-to-last place, above Bournemouth and below Everton. All three teams are on 21 points. Leeds, West Ham and Leicester are the next three teams, with the bottom six separated by just three points.
© AAP
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