Related items

• Tottenham 2-3 Arsenal: Gunners hold off late fightback to boost title hopes

  Arsenal survived a late scare to move four points clear at the Premier League summit following a 3-2 win at rivals Tottenham in Sunday's north London derby.

  The Gunners cruised into a 3-0 half-time lead thanks to an own goal from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg along with Bukayo Saka's strike and Kai Havertz's header.

  Yet a second-half collapse looked to be on the cards when Cristian Romero punished David Raya’s error before Son Heung-min pulled another back from the spot. However, the Gunners ultimately held on.

  Arsenal, at least temporarily, tightened their grip on top spot ahead of second-placed Manchester City, who play the first of their two games in hand against Nottingham Forest later on Sunday, while Tottenham remain seven points off the top four in fifth.

  The Gunners broke through after 15 minutes when Hojbjerg inadvertently nodded Saka’s inswinging corner beyond Guglielmo Vicario at his near post.

  Spurs responded, and after Romero headed against the post, Micky van de Ven thought he had levelled when he slotted home from close range. However, the decision to award the goal was overturned following a VAR review with the defender adjudged to be offside.

  Arsenal doubled their lead in the 27th minute following a swift counter that saw Havertz pick out Saka, who cut inside before slotting past Vicario.

  Havertz then got in on the act before half-time, heading home Declan Rice’s corner from inside the six-yard box.

  Yet an error by Raya gifted Spurs a lifeline after the break, when Romero pounced on the goalkeeper’s poor clearance to reduce the hosts’ arrears.

  Matters were made more fraught for the Gunners late on, when a VAR check confirmed a penalty should be awarded to Spurs for Rice’s foul on Ben Davies.

  Son lashed a brilliant spot-kick into the left-hand corner, yet a late Spurs onslaught ultimately came to nothing, as the Gunners secured another big win.

  Saka shines in the derby limelight

  The destiny of the Premier League title may be in Man City’s hands, but Arsenal are still very much in the hunt after a second London derby victory this week.

  Mikel Arteta’s side, who thumped Chelsea 5-0 on Tuesday, have bounced back brilliantly from their defeat to Aston Villa two weeks ago, scoring 10 goals in three games while conceding just twice.

  After his corner led to the opening goal, Saka doubled the lead with his 15th league strike of this term – his most in a single season – while he became the first English player to score home and away for Arsenal against Tottenham in a single campaign since Ian Wright 30 years ago (1993-94).

  The damage was effectively done when Havertz headed in the Gunners’ 16th goal from a corner this season, the most in a single campaign since West Bromwich Albion in 2016-17 (also 16), though Arteta will have been concerned by their near slip at the end.

  Spurs' struggles on home soil continue

  The 195th north London derby culminated in Tottenham losing successive home league games against Arsenal for the first time since 1988.

  Despite their best efforts in the second half, it was always going to be difficult to turn things around against the side that has now won all 16 matches when leading at half-time this season.

  Now without a win in four meetings against their rivals, they have also tasted success just once in five home outings against the Gunners.

  With their own title hopes undented by their rivals, Arsenal will hope Tottenham can instead harm City’s chances when they host them on May 14.

• Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record

  Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".

  Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.

  The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.

  With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.

  Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.

  Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!

  "I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance. 

  "It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."

  Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.

• Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win

  Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa. 

  Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.

  Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.

  Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.

  With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.

  "Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.

  "The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.

  "It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.

  "They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.

  "We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."

  Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.

  The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.

  Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half. 

  "The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.

  "To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."