Bizarre penalty decision, Haaland finds his shooting boots, and Littler eyes greatness
Saturday’s Premier League action left Mikel Arteta scratching his head, Ange Postecoglou furious and Pep Guardiola eyeing a good night’s sleep
The important game was out of the way early on Saturday, with Burnley maintaining their dominance over Blackburn Rovers in the first El Lancastrio of the year, although a classic it was not.
Still, it doesn’t matter how you win when bragging rights of that magnitude are at stake, just that you do, and Zian Flemming’s diving header means it’s now nearly 15 years since Rovers beat their fiercest rivals.
Liverpool had a good day too, and they didn’t even have to play to tighten their grip on the Premier League. Chelsea and Arsenal both dropped points, with the latter the victims of a strange penalty, which is where we’ll start today’s look at what happened while you were sleeping.
Heads you win
Arsenal’s chances of catching Liverpool suffered a blow away at Brighton, and it was a bad day overall for Mikel Arteta, who also lost teenager Ethan Nwaneri to injury.
The 17-year-old had put his side ahead in the 16th minute, becoming only the sixth player under 18 to score multiple times in the top-flight, but then went off at half-time with “muscular issues”, which Arteta said was “really bad news”.
It got worse for the Arsenal boss, who then saw Brighton handed a lifeline when defender William Saliba was adjudged to have clashed heads with Joao Pedro as they challenged for a bouncing ball. Pedro duly scored from the spot, and the home side held on for a draw.
