LONDON, Dec. 27 — Premier League leaders Arsenal came back from a goal down to beat West Ham 3-1 and dispel doubts that their title challenge will be badly handicapped by the loss of Gabriel Jesus through injury.
Worries about Arsenal seemed to be confirmed when Said Benrahma put West Ham ahead with a 27th-minute penalty. Still, Bukayo Saka levelled in the 53rd minute after controlling Martin Odegaard’s mid-hit shot and Gabriel Martinelli put Arsenal ahead in the 59th minute.
Eddie Nketiah extended Arsenal’s lead after a cushioned pass from Odegaard with 21 minutes left to play and with former coach Arsene Wenger watching from the stands, Arsenal move seven points clear.
Newcastle United showed no ill effects of the six-week break for the World Cup as they raced into a 3-0 lead away to Leicester City in just 35 minutes.
Chris Wood opened the scoring from the penalty spot after three minutes after Joelington was brought down in the Leicester area.
Miguel Almiron doubled Newcastle’s lead in the seventh minute with an excellent goal after exchanging passes with Bruno Guimaraes, and Joelington made it 3-0 just after the half-hour. After that, Newcastle was content to conserve their lead and climb up to second.
Liverpool moved up to sixth with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa in an entertaining game at Villa Park.
Mohamed Salah put Liverpool ahead after five minutes and they doubled their lead later in the half thanks to Virgil van Dijk’s deflected shot.
Ollie Watkins’ well-placed header got Villa back into the game before teenager Stefan Bajcetic came off the subs’ bench to seal the win for Liverpool with his first league goal nine minutes from time.
Brentford and Tottenham kicked off the day with an entertaining 2-2 draw, which saw Harry Kane inspire a fightback to save a point for the visitors.
Brentford was 2-0 ahead after goals from Vitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney before Kane got Tottenham back into the game with an excellent 65th-minute header and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg equalized just six minutes later as Tottenham pressed to the end.
Brighton was without their World Cup winner, Alexis Mac Allister, but still had few problems in brushing past Southampton away from home.
Adam Lallana opened the scoring for Brighton against his former club in the 14th minute and the visitors’ cause was helped 20 minutes later when Romain Perraud put the ball into his own net.
Solly March scored a third for Brighton in the 56th minute before James Ward Prowse salved some pride for Southampton with 15 minutes left to play.
That result, combined with Wolverhampton Wanderers’ 2-1 win away to Everton, leaves Southampton bottom of the table, while Wolves’ win also increases the pressure on Everton boss Frank Lampard.
Everything that could go wrong for Crystal Palace did go wrong as they crashed to a 3-0 home defeat to Fulham.
No Xmas hangover as Arsenal return to action with win
