Arsenal felt the full force of Manchester City’s rampant attack to slump to a 6—3 loss in the Premier League on Saturday, cutting its lead to two points and throwing the title race wide open.
Chelsea pounced on Arsenal’s implosion at Etihad Stadium by edging past Crystal Palace 2—1 at home to provisionally move into second place.
But approaching the halfway stage of the campaign, City is likely to be most people’s favorite for the title after following up big home wins over Manchester United and Tottenham already this season with another masterful attacking display against Arsenal.
What had been the tightest defense in the league was ripped apart, with City’s eighth straight home win leaving Manuel Pellegrini’s entertainers a point adrift of Chelsea in third.
The results:
Manchester City 6 (Aguero 14; Negredo 39; Fernandinho 50, 88; Silva 66; Toure 90+6-pen) bt Arsenal 3 (Walcott 31, 63; Mertesacker 90+4); Cardiff 1 (Whittingham 65) bt West Brom 0; Chelsea 2 (Torres 16, Ramires 35) bt Crystal Palace 1 (Chamakh 29); Everton 4 (Osman 18, Coleman 73, Barry 85, Mirallas 90) bt Fulham 1 (Berbatov 67-pen); Newcastle 1 (Gouffran 27) drew with Southampton 1 (Rodriguez 65); West Ham 0 drew with Sunderland 0.