Premier League giants Arsenal beat Tottenham in a Sunday derby to maintain their lead at the top of the Premier League Table.
Mikel Arteta’s team raced to a 3-0 halftime lead, but then had to resist a late fightback from Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored an own-goal in the 15th minute to put Arsenal ahead and Bukayo Saka doubled the visitors’ lead in the 27th.
Kai Havertz added a third in the 38th. One would think that Arsenal would score more goals in the second half, but it was the reverse.
Cristian Romero pulled a goal back for Tottenham after latching onto David Raya’s weak kick.
Then Declan Rice brought down Ben Davies in the box to hand Spurs a late penalty after a VAR review.
Arsenal moved four points ahead of City, which was playing Nottingham Forest later in the day.
Liverpool are four points behind City in third spot, but like Arsenal having played 35 matches with three games left.
Tottenham’s defeat hit their hopes of playing Champions League football next season as they stand seven points off fourth-placed Aston Villa, albeit still with two games in hand.
“I was praying at the end. It was a really emotional game. This is a tough place to come and a great team to play against. We had to dig in and suffer,” Arteta, who reached 100 Premier League wins as Arsenal manager, told Sky Sports.
Tottenham manger Ange Postecoglou was left to rue the mistakes of his side.
“They’re (Arsenal) a team that deals with the details well and we aren’t,” the Australian said.
