Arsenal wins, Man U loses to leave plenty to play for in EPL

A display of character and resilience from Arsenal has ensured theres plenty of life left in the Premier League title raceThe fight to finish in the Champions League qualification positions is far from over too after David De Geas latest mistake in another away loss for Manchester UnitedBy inflicting a rare home defeat on Newcastle Arsenal gained redemption for one of its most painful losses under Mikel Arteta and kept the pressure firmly on Manchester City just when it looked like the defending champions might be strolling to the titleAlso ReadSoccer title races in Ukraine Turkey defy offfield dangersArsenals 20 win in a febrile atmosphere inside St James Park left City with a onepoint lead with three weeks left in the season City has a game in hand but the tougher runin with three away matches in its remaining four fixturesLets keep going and digging and digging and see what is there said Arteta after a win earned by Martin Odegaards longrange strike in the 14th minute and an owngoal by Fabian Schar in the 71stIn a physical game Arsenals players were shoved and roughed up while riling the home fans with streetwise tactics that might have pushed the boundaries of gamesmanshipAnything to keep alive hopes of a first league title since 2004We had to be very smart and to be ugly at times Odegaard saidIts a big step for a young team like ours to come here and do the things we didIts just one in six road trips for Erik ten Hags fragile team which lost 10 at West Ham just three days after a defeat by the same score at Brighton on a 99thminute penaltyWest Hams winner came much earlier with De Gea somehow allowing a weak shot by Said Benrahma from outside the area to dribble past his outstretched arm and slowly into the net in the 27thNo Premier League player has made more errors leading to goals this season than De Geas four according to the competitions stats supplier Opta De Gea also made a big mistake at Sevilla as United slumped to defeat in the Europa League quarterfinals last monthUnited stayed in fourth two points behind thirdplace NewcastleLiverpool which is in fifth place and a point back from United was the big winner Sunday though has played one game morePREMATCH VIDEOBefore making the journey to St James Park from the team hotel Arsenals players were shown video clips from last seasons 20 loss at Newcastle that cost them a chance to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions LeagueThey were bullied and outplayed that day but appeared to have learned their lessonWe had to see our faces and understand the emotions not just the players but the staff also Arteta said of the videoiquestYou dont want to be like this anymore it is a horrible feeling Today we had to show a different type of competitiveness desire and then qualityOdegaards goal came against the run of play Newcastle had already struck the post through Jacob Murphy and seen a penalty overturned following a VAR check by the time the Norway playmaker slammed a low shot through the legs of Newcastle defender Sven Botman and past goalkeeper Nick PopeAlexander Isak also hit the post with a header and Newcastle paid for its profligacy when Gabriel Martinellis cross was diverted into his own net by ScharThe noise was there today said Newcastle manager Eddie Howe whose team lost at home for just the second time this season We just needed to score and it would have helped us take offALMOST SAFEWith its Premier League survival virtually secure West Ham can maybe afford to focus on winning a European trophy in the final weeks of the seasonThe win over United lifted West Ham to 37 points seven above the bottom three with three games left two of which are against teams lower in the standings in Leeds and LeicesterWest Ham is still involved in the Europa Conference League with a twolegged semifinal against Dutch club AZ Alkmar starting with the home game on ThursdayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever