If Chelsea collapse in the final weeks of the English Premier League season, Arsenal will be primed to take advantage.
Aaron Ramsey extended Arsenal’s winning run to eight matches on Saturday by clinching a 1-0 victory at Burnley.
Arsenal’s resurgence has sent the team four points behind Chelsea with six matches to go, but Jose Mourinho’s side has two games in hand.
Photo: Reuters
“I am pleased because it was a more fighting and fluent performance and many people question us on that side,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “We had to fight and be combative until the end. We couldn’t score the second goal and our defenders played well today and got us the three points.”
“Nothing has changed, they are too comfortable Chelsea,” Wenger added. “We need a perfect run and non-perfect run from them. We can’t master that.”
It is a tight tussle against the drop with bottom-placed Leicester City winning 3-2 at West Bromwich Albion to go within a point of Burnley and Queens Park Rangers.
The two teams directly above the relegation zone both lost on Saturday. Sunderland were thrashed 4-1 at home by Crystal Palace — with Yannick Bolasie scoring an 11-minute hat-trick — and Hull City went down 2-0 at Southampton.
As Southampton rose to fifth place, Tottenham Hotspur slid to seventh with a 1-0 loss to Aston Villa. Christian Benteke’s header gave manager Tim Sherwood a victory against the club which fired him last year and lifted Villa six points clear of danger.
The only game on Saturday with any impact on the top of the standings was at Burnley, and Arsenal discovered just why Manchester City lost here and Tottenham were held 0-0 in the last month.
“It was definitely one of the tougher games,” Ramsey said. “A lot of the big teams have dropped points here this season.”
Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton saved a free-kick from Alexis Sanchez in the first minute, but he conceded his first goal at home since Feb. 28 in the 12th minute.
Mesut Ozil’s shot was parried by Heaton, Sanchez’s follow-up hit Kieran Trippier, but Ramsey sent a powerful strike into the bottom corner amid a goalmouth scramble.
Tripper came close to leveling when his dipping free-kick was turned away by David Ospina’s diving save, while George Boyd and Danny Ings squandered chances to grab a point for Burnley in the second half.
“We’ve got good belief in our performances,” Burnley manager Sean Dyche said. “We still need to add quality to our performance, but there’s certainly a will and a demand to go and get more points this season.”
There was a pair of 1-1 draws between teams hovering near the middle of the standings. Jonjo Shelvey’s penalty for Swansea City canceled out Aaron Lennon’s Everton opener. West Ham United conceded a stoppage-time equalizer from Stoke City’s Marko Arnautovic.
At the Hawthorns, West Brom players wore a replica of the all-white kit the team donned in the 1968 FA Cup final in Saturday’s game against Leicester, in honor of former striker Jeff Astle, who died in 2002 of a brain condition.
Astle’s family have launched a foundation to promote help for sufferers and research of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a condition usually linked to boxing that sees the brain degenerate progressively because of repeated head trauma.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Japan yesterday secured a second consecutive Billie Jean King Cup finals appearance with a 2-1 win over 2023 champions Canada, thanks to Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama’s 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Kayla Cross and Rebecca Marino in the qualifying doubles decider. Shibahara and Aoyama powered through the opening set 6-3, breaking twice for a quick 3-0 lead. Cross and Marino hit back in the second, edging it 7-5 to level the match, before the Japanese pair regained control in the third. Canada’s 18-year-old Victoria Mboko edged Shibahara 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a marathon opening clash. Mboko fired eight aces to
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