Spurs won with a penalty from Harry Kane and an 83rd minute victor from their Denmark playmaker Christian Eriksen, on his 24th birthday, for a fifth straight league win.
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Ten-man Premier League leaders Leicester City lost at title-chasing Arsenal, while La Liga pacesetters Barcelona crushed Celta Vigo and Juventus took over from Napoli at the top of Serie A by edging their rivals.
Sturridge marked his first league start since early October with the opening goal as Liverpool romped to a six-goal rout of hapless bottom club Aston Villa.
Other Matchday 26 pairings had been decided on Saturday.
Down to 10 men following Danny Simpson’s 54th-minute dismissal, Leicester were clinging on at a tension-bound Emirates Stadium when Welbeck headed in a 95th-minute victor from Mesut Ozil’s free-kick on his return after 10 months out with a serious knee injury.
“Now we need players to come back and make the difference”.
It was all Arsenal now, but with Leicester showing the resilience which has so impressed this season, until Arsene Wenger threw on Welbeck and he repaid his faith.
Arsenal’s Theo Walcott cancelled out Jamie Vardy’s opener on 70 minutes and Danny Welbeck snatched a last-gasp victor. “We took all the risks to win it”.
Two such games occurred at the weekend, with Arsenal and Tottenham completing doubles over Leicester City and Manchester City respectively.
In the 53rd minute, and Danny Rose’s cross is handled in the area by Raheem Sterling.
The perceived injustice sparked City’s best period and after a spell of pressure home substitute Kelechi Iheanacho equalized with a sweet strike after a cut back from Gael Clichy.
Arsenal’s victory threatens to blow the title race open, with third-place Tottenham visiting fourth-place Manchester City later in the day. “An worldwide referee gives two yellow cards for normal fouls”, he said, adding that the winning goal came after the allotted stoppage time had been played.
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John Terry limped off eight minutes before the end of the first half, after clashing with Aleksandr Mitrovic.It leaves Gary Cahill and Branislav Ivanovic at centre-half. The Gunners now laid siege to the Leicester goal and only a brilliant one-handed save from Kasper Schmeichel prevented Giroud’s stinging shot putting Arsenal ahead. I had a lot of great help behind the scenes with the medical staff and with James Haycock, who worked with me personally and was great. Dwelling on that, if they’d have got another three points, how far ahead they would have been.
