EPL Round-up: Fulham sinks United, Arsenal and City win

Aston Villa's top-four ambitions, Manchester United's setback, and Arsenal's confident form in the Premier League race.

Bukayo Saka celebrates in front of the Arsenal fans after helping the Gunners past Newcastle at the Emirates on Saturday. (Photo credit: Arsenal.com)

Aston Villa is keeping things tight in the top-four race, with their eyes on Arsenal in third. It looks ambitious, but there are only six points between Unai Emery’s team and the Gunners.

There were blips and scares in Villa’s 4-2 success over Nottingham Forest, but grinding out the result with a flurry of goals was a good way to show character, and Tottenham and Manchester United now have it all to do.

With Tottenham not playing in the game week, Manchester United had the chance to move closer to Ange Postecoglou’s side, and all they needed to do at Old Trafford, right in front of their fans, was beat Fulham. They couldn’t.

One moment, United is on a streak, and you think they will go all the way; the next moment, they’re crumbling like they don’t know how to play football. You wonder how they equalized quite late and still conceded to lose the game.

Injuries are no longer tenable for Erik Ten Hag; virtually every team in the league has something to worry about in that regard. No disrespect to Fulham, but a serious top-four contender should be beating the Lilywhites anywhere, let alone at home.

For more serious teams, Manchester City is on that patch of 1-0 wins, and it looks familiar. Champions have that run of tough games and close results, but we can also say it’s uncharacteristic of the champions to score just once in games.

Pep Guardiola tinkered a little again, Kevin De Bruyne didn’t feature, they continued to manage their minutes, and Kyle Walker was rested completely. It took a Phil Foden goal to help City past Bournemouth, with Erling Haaland missing a gilt-edge chance early in the game.

The final game of the day was at the Emirates, where Arsenal needed to pick a bone with Newcastle. The memories of the first leg were never going to go away; the Joe Willock incident, the Joelington push, the Anthony Gordon offside—they wouldn’t go away.

Arsenal put four past Newcastle, and despite Willock heading home a consolation goal, it didn’t look like the visitors would get near the Gunners. Arsenal’s confidence is now sky-high, as they have now won six on the bounce in the league this year.

Bukayo Saka continues his streak, with a deceptive curler in the second half added to a Sven Botman own goal and a Kai Havertz tap-in before Jacob Kiwior headed home from a corner late on to make it four. The goals are pouring in in the league; Arsenal must replicate that in Europe.