Arsenal go five points clear, Villa roar back at Brighton to go third

LONDON, Dec 3 : Arsenal re-established their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 home win against Brentford on Wednesday and for the second evening running the goals flowed as Aston Villa won 4-3 in a thriller at Brighton and Hove Albion.

Mikel Merino's 11th-minute header gave Arsenal the lead but they needed a stoppage-time goal by substitute Bukayo Saka to make the points safe on a night of hard graft in which they stretched their unbeaten run in all competitions to 18.

Manchester City had cut the advantage to two points on Tuesday with a wild and wacky 5-4 victory at Fulham but Arsenal responded in calm fashion to move to 33 points from 14 games.

Aston Villa are up to third with 27 points after Ollie Watkins scored twice as they came from two goals down at Brighton to claim a fourth successive league win.

Chelsea's hopes of staying in range of Arsenal suffered a big blow as they went down 3-1 at Leeds United to slip to fourth on 24 points, one ahead of Crystal Palace who are fifth after Daniel Munoz gave them a 1-0 victory at struggling Burnley.

Champions Liverpool failed to build on their victory over West Ham United at the weekend as they needed a late own goal by Nordi Mukiele to grab a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland - a result that left them in eighth place, 11 points behind Arsenal.

Bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers' plight looks ever more grim as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest. They have now lost 12 of their opening 14 games, drawing the other two, and are 12 points shy of the safety zone.

Arsenal's bid for a first Premier League title since 2003-04 is looking rock-solid despite several injuries, including to key defenders William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes.

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