By STEVE DOUGLAS
Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge was dented by an unexpected 1-0 home loss to West Ham on Saturday that featured a fifth red card of the season for Mikel Arteta’s team.
Second-place Arsenal squandered a chance to trim the gap to Liverpool to five points as Jarrod Bowen’s first-half header secured a win for West Ham, which arrived at Emirates Stadium with just one victory in its last eight games.
There was worse to come for Arsenal, with left back Myles Lewis-Skelly handed a red card following a video review for his foul as the last man. The team’s disciplinary record under Arteta has come under scrutiny this season — and might yet cost the Gunners the title, along with key injuries to their attack.
With the likes of Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus out injured, Arsenal had only two shots on target against West Ham.
It leaves Liverpool with an eight-point cushion, having played the same number of games as Arsenal, and that advantage could grow when the leaders play Manchester City away on Sunday.
United rallies for draw at Everton
Manchester United came from two goals down before benefiting from a last-gasp video-review call to draw 2-2 at Everton.
Uruguay midfielder Manuel Ugarte grabbed the 80th-minute equalizer for United with his first goal at club level in four years, eight minutes after Bruno Fernandes started the visitors’ fightback at Goodison Park by curling in a free kick.
United had been on course to slip to a third straight loss — and ninth defeat in 15 league matches since Ruben Amorim took charge in November — after first-half goals by Beto and Abdoulaye Doucoure for resurgent Everton.
There was a late scare for United when Everton was awarded a penalty for what appeared to be a foul by Harry Maguire on Ashley Young, who fell to the ground dramatically under pressure from Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt in the third minute of stoppage time.
Following a video review, on-field referee Andrew Madley was advised to view the incident again on the pitchside monitor and he changed his initial decision.
“I think it was a soft penalty, it was clear,” Amorim said.
Champions League-chasing Bournemouth slip up
Fifth-place Bournemouth lost 1-0 at home to Wolverhampton to damage its bid for a finish in the Champions League qualification positions.
Bournemouth defender Illya Zabarnyi’s 31st-minute red card was quickly followed by the winning goal by Matheus Cunha for Wolves.
Tottenham won 4-1 at Ipswich to further ease the pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou, last-place Southampton lost 4-0 at home to Brighton, and Crystal Palace won 2-0 at Fulham.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
