Arsenal brushed aside bottom club Wolverhampton Wanders 2-0 on Saturday with both goals from captain Martin Odegaard to take a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League going into a mid-season break for the World Cup.
The Norwegian midfielder, one of the revelations of Arsenal’s swashbuckling early-season form, slotted his first into a gaping net in the 55th minute after a Fabio Vieira cross at the end of a typically clever passing by the visitors.
Odegaard bagged his second off a rebound 20 minutes later.
The result left Arsenal first in the Premier League on 37 points, five ahead of Manchester City who lost at home to Brentford earlier in the day.
The Londoners have not won the Premier League since their 2003-04 title when they were dubbed “The Invincibles” for going an entire season without defeat.
Joe Willock’s thunderous second-half goal earned Newcastle United a statement 1-0 win over Chelsea at St James’ Park on Saturday and consolidated third place in the Premier League in their final fixture before the World Cup.
Miguel Almiron cut inside Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly and nudged the ball into the path of the onrushing Willock, who unleashed a powerful first-time effort that flew past goalkeeper Edouard Mendy to bag his second league goal in as many games.
Newcastle had slipped to fourth after Tottenham Hotspur’s victory over Leeds United earlier but regained third place with a fifth straight league win, and will be in the Premier League’s top three at Christmas for the first time since 2001.
Eddie Howe’s side, on 30 points, have lost only one of their opening 15 games, and sit two points behind second-placed Manchester City and one above Tottenham in fourth while Chelsea dropped down to eighth after a third straight defeat.
Premier League champions Manchester City fell to their first home defeat of the season on Saturday as Ivan Toney secured a shock 2-1 win for Brentford while Tottenham Hotspur recovered from going behind three times to beat Leeds United 4-3.
Liverpool beat Southampton 3-1 as Darwin Nunez scored his first double for the team and Roberto Firmino also got on the scoresheet.
Everton manager Frank Lampard was put under renewed pressure following a 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth while James Maddison scored in a 2-0 win for Leicester City at West Ham United but was then taken off in an injury scare two days after being named in the England squad for the World Cup.
Leicester coach Brendan Rodgers sought to calm fears about the midfielder’s fitness, stating he had taken him off as a precautionary measure. Elsewhere, Nottingham Forest beat Crystal Palace 1-0 to move off the bottom of the standings.
Brentford striker Toney, who on Thursday was left out of England’s squad for the World Cup, gave the west Londoners the lead in the 16th minute at City and then clinched all three points with a 97th-minute winner after Phil Foden had equalised late in the first half.
“Speaking to some people from the club, this is probably the single biggest ever result, against one of the richest clubs in the world and we have one of the lowest budgets in the division,” said Brentford coach Thomas Frank.
City manager Pep Guardiola had no complaints with the result, adding: “The best team won, we struggled from the beginning and we couldn’t deal with their long balls.”
Tottenham again showed their resilience as well as their appetite for late drama by beating Leeds thanks to goals from Uruguay midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur in the 81st and 83rd minute.
Leeds, who had beaten Bournemouth by a 4-3 scoreline the previous week, took the lead through Crysencio Summerville while Rodrigo Moreno scored twice after Harry Kane and then Ben Davies had pulled Spurs level.
Tottenham coach Antonio Conte had been under pressure following the 2-1 home defeat by Liverpool and the elimination from the League Cup by Nottingham Forest but his side prevailed with their latest stirring comeback, also coming from behind to beat Bournemouth and Olympique de Marseille earlier this month.
“My players showed me big character in this period. In a lot of games we were losing and then we come back. For this reason I think we showed great character, great will to not give up and to believe,” said Conte.
Leeds coach Jesse Marsch added: “I’m gutted, I feel like someone has ripped my heart out.”
Alejandro Garnacho came off the bench to score a stoppage-time winner for Manchester United as they beat Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage in their final Premier League game before the World Cup break on Sunday.
Christian Eriksen, who is set to play for Denmark at the World Cup, scored the opener in the 14th minute, sliding in at the far post to steer the ball home after Anthony Martial and Bruno Fernandes combined cleverly to create the chance.
Eriksen had a great chance to double his side’s lead in first-half stoppage time when he was picked out in the box by Fernandes, but this time he stabbed his shot wide of the near post.
Carlos Vinicius almost put Fulham level just after the break, twisting to fire a shot that goalkeeper David De Gea steered behind, and the Spaniard pulled off another tremendous save to keep out Tim Ream’s headed effort from the subsequent corner.
The home side equalised in the 61st minute with a goal eerily similar to Manchester United’s as winger Willian played Tom Cairney free down the right and he centred for ex-United winger Daniel James to score two minutes after he came off the bench.
