Arsenal moved back to the top of the Premier League in dramatic fashion as an own goal from Aston Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez in stoppage-time handed the Gunners a crucial 4-2 victory on Saturday.<\/p>\n
With just minutes left at Villa Park, Mikel Arteta\u2019s side were in danger of stumbling again in their bid to win the title for the first time since 2004.<\/span><\/p>\n Arsenal had twice trailed to goals from Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho, only for Bukayo Saka and then Oleksandr Zinchenko to haul them level.<\/span><\/p>\n A draw would have taken Arsenal above Manchester City but hardly enhanced their hopes of holding off the champions in a thrilling title race.<\/span><\/p>\n But they received a helping hand from their former keeper as Martinez inadvertantly deflected Jorginho\u2019s shot into his own net after it hit the bar in stoppage-time.<\/span><\/p>\n Gabriel Martinelli capped Arsenal\u2019s remarkable escape with a goal in the final seconds to lift the north Londoners three points clear of second placed City.<\/span><\/p>\n Pep Guardiola\u2019s men would go back above Arsenal on goal difference if they win at Nottingham Forest later on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n For the first time since August 20, the Gunners were not starting a round of fixtures on top of the Premier League table after losing 3-1 to City on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n Arsenal were without a win in their previous three top-flight games and last four in all competitions, but this spirited victory will give them renewed belief they can pip City to the title.<\/span><\/p>\n Tom Hanks, a self-confessed Villa fan, was watching from the stands and Arsenal scripted a Hollywood ending in front of the superstar actor.<\/span><\/p>\n Arteta had bemoaned the \u201cvery difficult\u201d fixture schedule that saw Arsenal back in action just 63 hours after the final whistle in their defeat against City on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n And Arteta\u2019s fears about Arsenal struggling to cope with the quick turnaround came true after just five minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arsenal moved back to the top of the Premier League in dramatic fashion as an own goal from Aston Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez in stoppage-time handed the Gunners a crucial 4-2 victory on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1376,3459,223],"class_list":["post-12188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-aston-villa","tag-epl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12190,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12188\/revisions\/12190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}