10-Man Arsenal stumbles as Liverpool and Manchester City claim vital wins

Arsenal were the big losers in the Premier League title race this weekend as the Gunners were shockingly beaten 2-0 at Bournemouth, while Liverpool and Manchester City secured vital wins on Sunday.

City needed a controversial 95th-minute winner from John Stones to see off bottom-of-the-table Wolves 2-1. Liverpool were pushed all the way by an impressive Chelsea, but maintained their stunning start to life under Arne Slot in a 2-1 win.

Here, we look at three talking points from the Premier League weekend.

Liverpool rise to Chelsea challenge

Arne Slot's impressive start to the daunting task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp had come with the caveat of an inviting run of fixtures. Prior to Chelsea's visit to Anfield, they had not faced any of the current top nine in their opening seven league games.

The Reds also face Arsenal, Brighton and Aston Villa before the next international break in a run that will truly test their credentials as title challengers.

Chelsea arrived with confidence, buoyed by their own six-game unbeaten run in the Premier League since losing to Manchester City in Enzo Maresca's first match in charge. The Blues enjoyed nearly 60 percent possession and had 12 shots on goal to Liverpool's eight but still could not derail Liverpool's momentum.

Slot's decision to hand Curtis Jones just his second league start of the season proved an inspired one as the midfielder scored the winning goal and earned the penalty from which Mohamed Salah opened the scoring.

Presenting your current league table 🙌

🥇 Liverpool stay top
🌳 Nott’m Forest move up to eighth
❌ Four teams without a win pic.twitter.com/JenDGxMRMC

— Premier League (@premierleague) October 22, 2024

Arsenal’s ‘accident waiting to happen’

Arsenal's title challenge suffered another blow due to their ill discipline. Mikel Arteta's men have had a man sent off in three of their opening eight matches of the Premier League campaign and gone on to drop points in all of them.

Arsenal gave up leads against Brighton and City when Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard saw red, and even worse was to come when William Saliba was dismissed after just 30 minutes. Bournemouth took full advantage as goals from Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert in the final 20 minutes inflicted Arsenal's first defeat of the season in any competition.

“It’s very difficult to win in the Premier League with 10 men for 60 minutes,” said Arteta. “It’s just an accident waiting to happen. We have had to go through it in three games and that cost us the game.”

Wolves rage at ‘subconscious’ bias

Reeling from John Stones' controversial last-second winner, Wolves boss Gary O'Neil claimed Premier League match officials are subconsciously biased towards City and other big clubs.

Stones' header from Phil Foden's corner in the final minute of stoppage-time at Molineux was initially ruled out for offside against Bernardo Silva, who was standing directly in front of Wolves's keeper Jose Sa. But after a VAR intervention, referee Chris Kavanagh overturned the decision, ruling that Silva, who ducked down before the ball hit the net, was not offside or interfering with Sa.

It was another marginal call against Wolves, who led a campaign for VAR to be scrapped over the close-season, leaving them with just one point from their opening eight games.

"There's no chance that people are purposely against Wolves," said O'Neil, whose side had a goal chalked off in similar circumstances against West Ham last season.

"But is there something in the subconscious around decision-making or, without even knowing it, are you more likely to give it to Manchester City than Wolves?

“They are human. I might be miles off, but if I had to upset someone in a street and there was a little guy and a big guy, I'm upsetting a little guy."

AFP