(Football news) Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City defeated Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium with a dramatic winner in stoppage time in a fixture marred by controversy. The Gunners could have been awarded a penalty 10 minutes into the match when Ederson appeared to have fouled Martin Odegaard but the claim was dismissed by VAR. The hosts eventually  took the lead in the 31st minute as Bukayo Saka scored his fourth goal in three Premier League games and remained in control for the majority of the first half until a frantic five minutes at the end.

Bernardo Silva went down after a challenge by Granit Xhaka which was waved away by referee Stuart Attwell whose decision was subsequently ruled over by the VAR, resulting in Riyad Mahrez getting an equalizer for City from the spot. A little over a minute later, it was Arsenal who almost scored as Nathan Ake made a goal saving clearance while Gabriel Martinelli missed a golden opportunity from a rebound. In the 59th minute, Gabriel Magalhães was given a second yellow card for disrupting City’s counter-attack which reduced the Gunners to 10 men.

Despite the one man advantage, City couldn’t get the winner until 90 + 3 minutes when Rodri forced home the winner, resulting in ugly scenes as bottles were thrown on the pitch in the direction of the City players. With this result, the league leaders extended their lead to 11 points before Chelsea faced Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Chelsea and Liverpool were forced to share the spoils in a thrilling 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge that saw Thomas Tuchel’s side come from two goals down to salvage a point. The game had its fair share of controversy though as Sadio Mane could have received a red card in the first minute after his elbow caught Cesar Azpilicueta and the Senegalese footballer subsequently went on to score the opening goal in the 9th minute, capitalizing on Trevor Chalobah's poor defensive header. One of the talking points of the match before it started was Romelu Lukaku’s omission from the squad and it appeared that the Blues missed him when Mohamed Salah went on to double Liverpool’s advantage in the 26th minute.

However, Chelsea made a spirited comeback in the space of four first half minutes as Mateo Kovacic’s brilliant volley and Christian Pulisic’s lob over Kelleher levelled the scoring in the first half. With 45 minutes to go and all to play for, both teams had their fair share of opportunities but saves from Edouard Mendy and Caoimhin Kelleher resulted in both the teams sharing the spoils of the match. With this result Chelsea are now 10 points behind league leaders Manchester City and a point ahead of third place Liverpool who have played one game less. 

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel: "Brilliant match of football, everybody not in the stadium missed something – energy, some mistakes. We started excellently and were 1-0 down out of nothing because we made two or three big mistakes, then we conceded a second one which made the task very hard.

"The team did not give in and Mateo Kovacic's goal brought the belief back into the stadium. There was almost a perfect comeback in the first half with a third goal on the transition. Nice goals, no? The first one was absolutely brilliant but also the second was difficult. To coach was high level and it was on the edge, it could have gone either way. A good Sunday afternoon and new year."

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