English Premiership: Arsenal edge past Leicester to go five points clear

Martinelli

Relegation twist as Everton lose, Leeds, West Ham win Arsenal survived another dose of VAR controversy to overcome Leicester City 1-0 and go five points clear at the top of the Premier League table, reports Reuters.

Gabriel Martinelli’s strike 50 seconds into the start of the second half was enough to propel the Gunners over the line, with Brendan Rodgers’s men rarely threatening the Arsenal backline in the same manner that they did against Manchester United last weekend.

Springing a selection surprise by dropping Eddie Nketiah from the first XI, Mikel Arteta witnessed Leandro Trossard and Martinelli swap positions at will during the early exchanges, in which Arsenal were utterly dominant.

Leicester’s resistance would seemingly only last all of 26 minutes, as the ball fell to Trossard on the edge of the box following a corner, and the Belgian curled a delightful effort into the top corner.

However, Trossard’s strike was disallowed following a VAR review, with Ben White shown to have been holding onto the arm of Leicester goalkeeper, Danny Ward, during the corner scramble.

Only a couple of minutes later, the Foxes had the ball in the back of the net through Kelechi Iheanacho, but the Nigerian was clearly offside when he calmly slotted home.

The officials were not making friends with the Arsenal players or a characteristically animated Arteta at the King Power Stadium, as in the 33rd minute, Bukayo Saka was ostensibly hauled down by Harry Souttar inside the box, but the challenge did not warrant a penalty.

Arsenal did not have themselves to thank for the 0-0 scoreline at half time either, but within just 50 seconds of the restart, the Gunners would deservedly break the deadlock through Martinelli.

A long ball forward