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Chelsea’s title challenge damaged by defeat at Leeds

ENZO MARESCA slammed lacklustre Chelsea after their Premier League title challenge suffered a huge setback in a shock 3-1 defeat at lowly Leeds yesterday. Maresca’s side paid the price for a woeful first half performance at Elland Road featuring Leeds goals from Jaka Bijol and Ao Tanaka. Pedro Neto reduced the deficit after the interval but Chelsea conceded a farcical third goal to Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the closing stages. Losing to a fourth-bottom Leeds side beaten in their previous four games was a major setback to Chelsea’s hopes of competing with leaders

“It’s the Premier League, you need to perform every game, no matter if you are at home or away. “We missed Moises (Caicedo) tonight and will miss him in the next games. “He is an important player for any team in the world.” Chelsea had won just 29% of their league matches when Caicedo was out of the starting line-up and they struggled again without their driving force. – AFP

way because of the situation you have to manage, the players you have to rotate. “The only thing we can do is to try and understand what we did and then reset.” Chelsea were without influential midfielder Moises Caicedo after the Ecuador star was sent off in Sunday’s stormy 1-1 draw against Arsenal. “I hope we just had a bad night because it’s a game where you struggle to take anything from. They were much better in the duels,” Maresca said.

Arsenal for the title. The Blues’ first defeat in eight games in all competitions left them nine points behind Arsenal in fourth place. “There was nobody at their best level,” Maresca said. “They were better than us in all aspects, they deserved to win. “A very poor night. We performed so well against Arsenal and Barcelona, but it doesn’t mean we are going to always perform the same

‘Unbelievable’ Merino strikes again … as Arsenal extend Premier League lead

Injury blows hit Gunners’ title push

MIKEL ARTETA fears Arsenal’s mounting injury problems will hamper their bid to win the Premier League title after Declan Rice and Cristhian Mosquera limped off in yesterday’s 2-0 win against Brentford. Arteta’s side moved five points clear of second-placed Manchester City thanks to goals from Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners extended their unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions with an eighth successive home victory. But Arteta, already without first-choice centrebacks Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba through injury, was dealt a blow when Spanish defender Mosquera was forced off just before half-time. Even more alarmingly, England midfielder Declan Rice appeared to be nursing a calf injury when he was substituted 10 minutes from full-time. “Obviously it’s never good news. Declan had to come off. We don’t know. We have to see tomorrow what he’s got,” said Arteta, who is also without Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard due to injuries. “Declan can walk. He cannot play. The thing is, he’s played a lot of minutes but as well, now we played Wednesday night and we have to play Saturday morning as well.” With Arsenal having battled through a gruelling week featuring wins over Tottenham and Bayern Munich and a draw with title rivals Chelsea, Arteta had taken the opportunity to give a rest to Saka, Jurrien Timber and Eberechi Eze against the Bees. But all three were eventually needed off the bench, leaving Arteta to bemoan Arsenal’s injury curse and question the Premier League fixture schedule ahead of a testing trip to in-form Aston Villa (8.30pm Malaysian time) for tomorrow’s early kickoff. “Rest, that’s quite a positive word to use. We had to make some changes,” he said. “We had a very demanding week at every level. We were asked to play three days later, with one less recovery day than them. “We can play minutes but if they can please give us just a little more time to recover and to make the welfare of these players a little bit easier, that would be great.” – AFP the second period, but also struggled to make an impact against Sunderland’s well-organised defence. “I knew before the game Sunderland is a hard team to score against, hard team to create chances against,” added Slot. “A game where we didn’t concede a lot or create a lot and were really unlucky with the goal we conceded. It was a deflection and could have gone anywhere but in the period we are in, it went in.” – AFP

M IKEL MERINO main tained his emergence as Arsenal’s unlikely goal king as the “unbe lievable” makeshift striker inspired the Premier League leaders’ 2-0 win against Brentford yesterday. Merino has been converted from a central midfielder to the fulcrum of Arsenal’s attack due to injuries to Viktor Gyokores, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus. The Spain international has risen to the challenge with five goals this season, including the first-half header that opened the scoring at the Emirates Stadium. It was the second successive game that Merino delivered a vital contribution to Arsenal’s title challenge after his equaliser at title rivals Chelsea on Sunday. Thanks to Merino, and “It’s unbelievable what he has done again today. Not only the goal because the goal is magnificent, but also the movement, the quality, the finish, how he times it and then his work rate. “It’s phenomenal,” Arteta said. Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 18 games in all competitions as they chase a first English title since 2004. After finishing as Premier League runners-up for the last three seasons, the Gunners are showing the priceless ability to grind out results when they are not at their best. “It is always uncomfortable because all Brentford need is a throw in and it’s chaos and Slot conceded his side have lost their fear factor during a miserable run as Sunderland emerged with a 1-1 draw at Anfield yesterday. The Premier League champions have now failed to win in three consecutive home games and needed a Nordi Mukiele own goal to rescue a point against the Black Cats. Sunderland were on course for their first win at Anfield since 1983 when Chemsdine Talbi’s deflected LIVERPOOL BOSS Arne Bukayo Saka’s strike in the closing moments, Mikel Arteta’s side moved five points clear of second placed Manchester City, who won 5-4 at Fulham on Wednesday.

adventure. One-nil is never enough against them but I thought we dominated the game and created the biggest chances,” Arteta said. “Overall I am very happy. The week we had, three days later without any recovery, to do that again, I’m very proud of the players. “Especially with the amount of injuries we still have. “It’s been a challenge. Everyone that is given an opportunity is performing.” Having come from behind to avoid defeat at 10-man Chelsea on Monday, Arteta was concerned about the potential for an emotional and physical hangover from his players against Brentford. Arteta called for Arsenal fans to turn up “like animals” at the Emirates Stadium to help roar his team to victory. In the end, the atmosphere was more nervous than the Arsenal boss would have liked as Arsenal clung to their Dropping Saka, Eberechi Eze and Jurrien Timber to the bench to keep them fresh ahead of the hectic Christmas schedule, Arteta brought in Martin Odegaard, Noni Madueke and Ben White, who made his first league start since August. Arsenal were without injured centre-backs William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes. But Brentford boss Keith Andrews did Arteta a favour by benching prolific Brazilian forward Igor Thiago and the Gunners kept their first clean sheet in five matches. – AFP lead, but far more raucous days lie ahead if his team retain pole position in the title race.

Brentford’s Rico Henry (left) and Arsenal’s Noni Madueke in action during the yesrterday’s Premier League match. – REUTERSPIC

Liverpool fear factor gone, admits Slot

Any hope that a corner had been turned in Sunday’s 2-0 victory at West Ham was quickly dispelled for Slot. Mohamed Salah was left on the bench for the second consecutive game, but Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak again failed to deliver on their price tags of over £100 million (RM548m). Salah was introduced at the start of

have won just two of their last nine. “Teams that play us now think they can get a result,” said Slot. “Not only think because that has been shown this season. “Even the games we have won, we have fuelled the confidence for other teams that something is possible because the wins we had weren’t easy ones as well.”

strike opened the scoring. Even after Mukiele deflected Florian Wirtz’s effort into his own net for the equaliser, Wilson Isidor wasted a huge chance to snatch all three points for the visitors when his shot was cleared off the line by Federico Chiesa in stoppage time. Since winning their opening five league games of the season, Liverpool