5 talking points as Arsenal send title message with hard-fought win at Leicester
Arsenal were resilient in the face of late Leicester pressure to secure a huge three points with a 1-0 win.
While Manchester City failed to hold on to their own 1-0 lead just up the road against Nottingham Forest last week, Arsenal managed it.
The Gunners made the trip to the King Power knowing a win would drastically help their title charge given it would extend the gap between Manchester City and themselves to five points, albeit briefly.
While it wasn't a trademark blistering start from the visitors, Arsenal dominated possession in the opening exchanges. The Gunners thought they had opened the scoring when Leandro Trossard fired home a stunner, but VAR intervened to chalk it off after a foul on Danny Ward in the build-up.
The decision seemed to suck the life out of what was an intruiging first-half, though the Gunners felt they should have been awarded a spot-kick soon after.
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The second-half started in dramatic fashion though, with Gabriel Martinelli guiding the ball home but sustaining an injury in the process after Wilfred Ndidi stood on the Brazilian's knee-cap in the process of the winger scoring.
Mirror Football has analysed five talking points from an end-to-end contest at Leicester.
Arsenal extended their lead at the topWhat this result means
Arsenal's 1-0 win means the Gunners extend their lead at the top of the Premier League to five point, for the time being at least.
With City not playing until the evening away at Bournemouth, Arteta can watch Arsenal's title rivals in a more relaxed manner now that his men got the job done.
The Gunners now gear up for two home games in succession, with the first coming in the form of a second meeting with Everton in four weeks on Wednesday followed by the visit of Bournemouth next weekend.
As for 14th-placed Leicester, Brendan Rodgers should harbour some concerns with his side so blunt in attack for so long.
Ben White was seen holding goalkeeper Danny Ward's arm before Leandro Trossard's goal (Canal+)More VAR woe for Arteta
Just weeks after the Arsenal boss was left seething over the fact Brentford's equaliser was allowed to stand, he may feel hard done by once again.
The first flashpoint came when Trossard thought he had scored the game's opening goal with a fantastic finish from the edge of the ara, but VAR told referee Craig Pawson to take another look at it.
Upon multiple viewings, the official spotted that Arsenal right-back Ben White had held Foxes' goalkeeper Danny Ward's arm and prevented him from catching the ball.
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Just minutes later, Saka was sent tumbling down in the penalty area by Harry Souttar who seemed to fall onto the Arsenal attacker as he was about to leap for a header.
This time, however, VAR did not intervene and deemed the incident not enough to warrant a penalty for the visitors. Arteta cut a bemused figure on the touchline.
Leandro Trossard started as Arsenal's central attackerArsenal's makeshift attack
With Eddie Nketiah resigned to a role on the bench as a result of a minor knock and Gabriel Jesus still recovering from knee surgery, Arteta had to think outside the box when it came to his forward line.
He opted to deploy January signing Leandro Trossard from the start for the second successive game and entrusted the former Brighton man to cause havoc in the false nine role.
The Belgian showed some lovely link-up play, often dropping deep to then find Saka in a threatening position out on the right-flank. Trossard thought he'd fired his side in front, but it wasn't to be after VAR's ruling.
What Trossard did manage was an assist, sending Martinelli through on goal with a fantastic nutmeg pass through the legs of Leicester defender Souttar.
Shortly after, he was replaced by Nketiah with 20 minutes left to play.
Dennis Praet was tasked with creating chances for Leicester in James Maddison's absenceNo Maddison for the hosts
Leicester were without arguably their most important player in the form of James Maddison, who missed this clash as a result of a knee injury.
The midfielder was forced to take injections to be passed fit for last week's loss to Manchester United and this game simply came too soon for the midfielder.
Despite this, Rodgers also opted to drop a man regularly linked with Arsenal in Youri Tielemans. He favoured a midfield that consisted of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Wilfred Ndidi.
Dennis Praet was Leicester's creative outlet in Maddison's absence and in truth stuggled to really stamp his authority on the final third. A damning indictement of the Foxes attacking performance is that it took until the 72nd minute for them to reigster a shot.
Tielemans was brought on just after the hour mark, with Praet making way around 10 minutes later.
Oleksandr Zinchenko captained Arsenal for the first timeZinchenko skippers Arsenal
Left-back and Ukrainian international Zinchenko captained the Gunners for the first time in his Arsenal career as part of a touching gesture from the club.
The 25-year-old "donned the armband "as a mark of respect" on the first anniversary of Russian's invasion of Ukraine.
A statement from Arsenal ahead of kick-off read: "Alex Zinchenko is our captain today, as a mark of respect and love on the first anniversary of the conflict in Ukraine."
Zinchenko enjoyed a positive display, influencing the way Arsenal attack and taking up positions all over the pitch in trademark fashion.
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