LONDON, England (AP) — In the Premier League’s top-four shuffle, it’s Arsenal leading the way again — for now.
After slipping from the summit during the week, the Gunners overcame struggling Crystal Palace 2-0 yesterday thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s second-half brace.
Now the focus turns to today when Manchester City, who are two points behind Arsenal, host Chelsea, who are three points further back in third.
“I will watch that game with interest because it’s two competitors against us and it’s always interesting to see how they behave,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “We gained some points through some other opponents like Liverpool and Man United over this weekend, and I think we know that our results at the Emirates will be massively important until the end.”
Liverpool remained in fourth place, but their 1-1 draw at West Bromwich Albion was a missed opportunity to strengthen their pursuit of Champions League qualification.
Having led through Daniel Sturridge, Liverpool defender Kolo Toure sloppily gave the ball away to allow Victor Anichebe to equalise for West Brom.
Although Wenger still talks of United as a rival, an eighth loss of the title defence — at Stoke on Saturday — means the champions are seven points behind Liverpool.
And Arsenal are 15 points ahead of United in their quest for a first league title in a decade, after bouncing back from a hard-fought 2-2 draw at Southampton on Tuesday.
Despite dominating against Palace, Arsenal were frustrated throughout the first half in their pursuit of a goal against their relegation-threatened but well-organised London rivals.
The breakthrough came inside two minutes of the restart as Oxlade-Chamberlain scored his first Arsenal goal since December 2012 on his first league start since being injured on the opening day of this season in August.
Santi Cazorla weaved his way through the Palace defence and dinked the ball over for Oxlade-Chamberlain to lift the ball over goalkeeper Julian Speroni from close range.
And the 20-year-old England midfielder netted a second in the 73rd minute as he slotted seamlessly back into the injury-hit team.
Thomas Rosicky knocked the ball forward to Olivier Giroud, who backheeled it for Oxlade-Chamberlain to strike low into the net as Arsenal went a 10th game in all competitions unbeaten.
“It’s something I want to add to my game — more goals —so it was nice to get two today,” he said.
And this was a rare day when Luis Suarez couldn’t score for Liverpool, instead turning provider at the Hawthorns.
In a disjointed first-half display by his team, the Uruguay striker fed the ball to Sturridge at the far post to poke the ball into the West Brom net in the 24th minute.
But the winning position was thrown away in the 67th when Toure’s slack cross-field clearance went straight to Anichebe, who levelled with a low shot from a central position.
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Arsenal beat Crystal Palace; Liverpool held
