EPL Round up: Chelsea beats Spurs to close gap, Ipswich loses again

Arsenal drops points in a 1-1 Fulham draw; Chelsea stages a thrilling comeback to beat Spurs 4-3, piling pressure on Postecoglou amidst challenges.

Cole Palmer celebrates after firing Chelsea in front on Sunday at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Chelsea won 4-3. (Photo credit: Opta)

Arsenal failed to benefit from Liverpool’s no-show and Manchester City’s dropped points after being held to a 1-1 draw away at Fulham.

Mikel Arteta made four changes to his team that beat Manchester United in midweek, with Gabriel Martinelli and Alexander Zinchenko sitting on the bench. To mitigate the impact of Adama Traore's runs, Mikel Arteta shifted Thomas Partey to right back, with Jurrien Timber on the opposite side.

Fulham made a bright start with Kenny Tete setting up Raul Jimenez, who fires in the opener early in the game. Arsenal dominated from start to finish but couldn’t test Bernd Leno enough in the first half, as they only managed one shot on target.

William Saliba levelled early in the second half, and it felt like the Gunners would go all the way, but the Lilywhites stood their ground. Bukayo Saka thought he had won it for the visitors when he headed in Martinelli’s cross, but the Brazilian was marginally offside in the buildup.

"Gutted that we didn't win it. We fully deserved to win it," Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told reporters. "That's the quality of the opposition, so you cannot cry about it. We created all the opportunities, but it's extremely challenging to launch an attack. – Mikel Arteta.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Chelsea became the biggest winners of the weekend with a solid 4-3 success at Tottenham, plunging Spurs into despair, and fans are now questioning the quality of Ange Postecoglou, who, just a year ago, was looking like the messiah.

Tottenham raced to a 2-goal lead, both caused by Cucurella’s unfortunate slips; the Spaniard swapped his boots, and the rest is history. Chelsea came back to win 4-3 with Heung Min Son missing a gilt-edged chance to level things late on.

Postecoglou said at a news conference, "It is a tough moment because there are all these tools you can possibly use as a manager when you are going through tough moments to turn things around. Our limited resources from a playing perspective at the moment don't allow us to do that, so you have to find other ways."

"It's not a lack of effort." The players are constantly on the field due to the inability to rotate. They are giving everything they can. It diminishes performances as well because they probably need a rest, but we can't give them a rest.

"I think it is something we need to tackle head-on and keep pushing on. We still have a lot of work to do between now and January to maintain our performance.

"I still sense within this squad there is a real conviction in what we are doing, and if we maintain that, we will turn our season around, and hopefully at some point we hit some smoother waters in terms of some of the things that are happening at the moment."