Arsenal regain five-point lead - Struggling Liverpool drop more points at Anfield in EPL

LONDON, England:

Another win for Arsenal. More misery for Liverpool and their under-fire manager Arne Slot.

While Arsenal accelerated their English Premier League title charge with a 2-0 victory over Brentford to regain a five-point lead, Liverpool needed a late own-goal just to salvage a 1-1 draw with Sunderland at Anfield.

Slot will be back under pressure, with his team languishing in eighth place in a disappointing title defence and his decision to leave star forward Mohamed Salah out of the starting lineup for a second straight game likely to be heavily scrutinised.

"It's clear that teams that play us now think they can get a result," Slot said

Arguably a bigger shock came at Elland Road, where Chelsea fell to a 3-1 loss to Leeds in a blow to their hopes of challenging for the title.

Chelsea dropped to fourth place and nine points adrift Arsenal, which stretched their unbeaten run in all competitions to 18 matches and are looking good for a first league title since 2004.

STRENGTH IN DEPTH

Arsenal's strength in depth was on show in the comfortable win over Brentford that maintained the team's unbeaten record at Emirates Stadium this season.

The leaders were without first-choice centre backs Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba because of injury, while manager Mikel Arteta chose to start with stars Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Eberechi Eze on the bench.

Two of the back-ups combined for the 11th-minute opener, as Mikel Merino headed in Ben White's cross, before Saka came on as a substitute and scored the second goal with a shot that crawled over the line in stoppage time.

Manchester City are Arsenal's closest challengers at the moment and won 5-4 at Fulham in a wild match on Tuesday.

- AP