With City’s league form disintegrating, Louis van Gaal’s United side are now back in the frame for a top-four spot, even if they were poor against Watford before Mata’s victor.
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Manchester United legend Paul Scholes feels that Arsenal have failed this season to capitalize on the premier league title with the sort of players they have in their disposal.
City now need to get a positive result against relegation-threatened Aston Villa at home on Saturday and, with Tottenham facing Arsenal, it could be another intriguing weekend in an unpredictable competition. While Tottenham have coped well with the absence of Moussa Dembele the physicality of this West Ham team caught them out.
Kompany said: “If you look at this result it could have been worse, although we are not happy with the result or the performance”. They are only a point behind the fourth-placed Manchester City.
Wenger said: “We had all the ingredients to win the game, but football is football – it is cruel sometimes”.
That Swansea made six changes with Saturday’s games against Norwich City in mind, including a debut for 21-year-old Stephen Kingsley at left-back, only served to accentuate Arsenal’s disappointment.
Both players will be absent for Saturday’s north London derby showdown at White Hart Lane as Arsenal attempt to get their title challenge back on track following consecutive Premier League defeats.
The Reds gained some measure of revenge for their Capital Cup penalties defeat with a 3-0 rout of City, who are clinging on to their top-four place.
Including last week’s Champions League defeat to Barcelona, Arsenal have now lost three matches in a row for the first time since April 2010 and manager Arsene Wenger is anxious his team have lost confidence.
“We want to win [against Spurs] but mathematically, you can call it as you want”.
In our opinion, we still think Tottenham Hotspur are the title favorites, but Leicester is right there with them. I’m not in the mood to do that.
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The Gunners, meanwhile, hit the woodwork three times through Alexis Sanchez (twice) and striker Olivier Giroud. Of course I’m gunning for Spurs at the end of the day, but I think it could be a 1-1 draw myself, I think they might just cancel each other out.
