Week 22 in review

Arsenal lost a great opportunity to widen the lead at the top of the English Premier League (EPL) after being held to a barren draw by Stoke City on Sunday.

Manchester United stayed close to the top four after winning 1-0 away to Liverpool with Wayne Rooney scoring the only goal and with it made history by becoming the player who has scored the most number of league goals for a single club by taking his tally to 176.

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But the talking point of the weekend is Arsenal’s lost opportunity to increase their points tally as they remain level on points with Leicester City at the top of the log. Leicester failed to beat Aston Villa at home after the match ended in a 1-1 tie.

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Both teams have 44 points with the gunners on top only on goal difference. Nonetheless, it was always going to be difficult for Arsenal to pick all three points away. The gunners have always struggled to win at the Britania Stadium and things were made even worse by the absence of key players like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez.

In the absence of the two, Frenchman Olivier Giroud was left to look for goals on his own and the fact that he did not have someone to assist him in getting the goals was clearly evident.

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All in all, the gunners struggled a lot without their key men and Coach Arsene Wenger must do more to build consistency required of a title contender.

Despite their 1-0 win over Liverpool, United as has happened through-out the season struggled to create chances and should consider themselves lucky to have picked all three points away.

It is fact that Coach Louis Van Gaal admitted to after the Sunday fixture. “We struggled in the entire first half and could not keep possession for long. However, in the second half we did much better and kept the ball longer. We are very happy with this result,” he said.

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Manchester City were the only winners among the top three sides and they did it in style walloping Crystal Palace 4-0 and with it stayed a touching distance of the top spot.

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The biggest upset of the weekend never happened after Chelsea came from two goals down to draw 3-3 against Everton on Saturday while Tottenham tightened their grip on a top four finish after walloping Sunderland 4-1 in a high  scoring fixture.

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