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After winning 1-0 at Villa Park, Emery’s squad moved to within two points of first-place Liverpool in the league, setting a new club record of 15 successive home wins.

After being fired by Arsenal in 2019, what a wonderful victory over his former team must have been for the Spanish coach. Before taking over a Villa team that was on the verge of relegation the previous season, he had already restored his reputation. Though he has won four Europa League titles in his career, his work with the Midlands club may be his best to date.

After a recent winning streak that included victories over Tottenham and Manchester City, third-place Villa appears to be a genuine title candidate.

“We are increasing mentality and believing how we can be stronger,” Emery stated. “A lot of teams want to be in the top eight, but our goal is to get there as well. There were seven elite teams in the start, but we’ll compete to get in. We can be inspired and driven to succeed while we’re there.”

After just seven minutes, Villa’s John McGinn scored the lone goal and held on to deny Arsenal, a side known for scoring goals late in games, an equalizer that manager Mikel Arteta felt was the very least his team deserved.

“I´m really proud of the way the team played in this stadium against this team,” Arteta stated. “We should have won the game, but you also need to play better in the boxes and have things go your way.

“Although a lot of teams come here, I haven’t seen many treat them the way we have today.” Although the outcome is unknown, our strategy was evident.”

After beginning the day ahead of Liverpool by one point, Arsenal tumbled to second place in the league.

LUCKY ENGLAND

After “lucky” Liverpool pulled off a 2-1 comeback victory at Crystal Palace, manager Jurgen Klopp was relieved.

After Jean-Philippe Mateta’s penalty in the 57th minute put his team behind 1-0 at Selhurst Park, Klopp said his squad was “horrendous”.

When Jordan Ayew of Palace was sent off in the 75th minute, the mood and tempo completely changed, and Mo Salah’s deflected shot leveled the score a minute later. Harvey Elliott sealed the win in stoppage time with a long-range strike.

“I’m a very happy manager in this moment, but I know we were lucky as well,” Klopp stated. It’s true that you have no chance of becoming truly successful if you only win the very fantastic games. Clearly, our performance today was not particularly strong.

“For 76 minutes it was a really bad performance.”

SALAH’S DOCUMENTATION

Salah’s most recent historic goal at Selhurst Park started Liverpool’s comeback.

The Egypt international scored 200 goals for Liverpool, becoming the fifth player to do so, and 150 goals in the Premier League to tie Michael Owen for the top spot all time.

“The most important thing was that we won the game,” Salah stated. It’s an amazing sensation. We won the game, and I’m thrilled about the record.”

SUMMERS TURN

Following Manchester United’s latest defeat at the hands of Bournemouth, Erik ten Hag appeared to be troubled by everything.

United played a terrible performance at home, losing 3-0 and drawing loud jeers from the Old Trafford fans.

The frustration mounted for Ten Hag a day after he was named the Premier League manager of November, with goals from Dominic Solanke, Philip Billing, and Marcos Senesi.

It was United’s eleventh loss overall and their seventh league loss. That was even more puzzling coming just three days after United’s uplifting 2-1 victory over Chelsea. United lost an opportunity to tie fourth-place Manchester City on points.

“I’m obviously irritated and disappointed. Ten Hag remarked, “I was expecting something different. “I hoped before the game you can build on the performance and result from Chelsea, so it´s very disappointing.”

WILDER SUCCES

Chris Wilder returned to Sheffield United this week as manager, and he didn’t wait long to hear back from the team. In his second game in command, after losing to Brentford midweek, he guided his club to a 1-0 victory over the Reds.

In stoppage time of the first half, James McAtee scored the game-winning goal.

However, Sheffield United stayed at the bottom of the standings following Burnley’s 1-1 draw with Brighton in 19th place.

Each of the bottom two has eight points.

COOPER PRESSURE

Following Nottingham Forest’s 5-0 loss to Fulham earlier in the week, there was increasing conjecture over manager Steve Cooper’s future. Harry Toffolo gave his team the lead against Wolves on Saturday, but Matheus Cunha’s goal kept them from winning. At least Forest’s four-game losing streak was broken with a 1-1 tie.