Arsenal climbed up to second in the Premier League with a 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest as Aston Villa’s unbeaten home record was ended by a 3-1 defeat to Newcastle on Tuesday.
Goals from Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka maintained the Gunners’ title push at the City Ground ahead of their clash at home to leaders Liverpool on Sunday.
Arsenal’s first away win since early December takes Mikel Arteta’s men within two points of Liverpool, who are in action on Wednesday at home to Chelsea.
The visitors struggled to make their dominance of possession count until 25 minutes from time when Jesus’ effort from a narrow angle sneaked between the legs of former Arsenal goalkeeper Matt Turner.
Saka then fired home his 10th goal of the season from Jesus’ cross.
“Against this team at home I have seen a lot of teams that have suffered,” said Arteta. “I am pleased with the performance and winning the game.”
Substitute Taiwo Awoniyi set up a grandstand finish when he outmuscled William Saliba to slot home on 89 minutes.
But it was too little, too late for Forest who slip to within two points of the relegation zone and with the threat of a points deduction hanging over the club for breaching the Premier League’s financial rules.
Villa failed to join Arsenal on 46 points after losing at home in the league for the first time since February last year.
Unai Emery’s men had won 16 of their 17 Premier League games at Villa Park since, but gave themselves a mountain to climb as Newcastle centre-back Fabian Schar scored twice from corners in the first half.
Newcastle had the second worst away record in the league before kick-off, but were cruising towards their first victory on the road since September when Alex Moreno turned into his own net under pressure from Jacob Murphy.
“It was mixed emotions for me because that team is an elite team. The mixed part is that we haven’t seen that for a number of weeks,” said Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, whose squad has been ravaged by injuries this season.
“We looked much like ourselves and we have players coming back.”
Ollie Watkins reduced the arrears with his first goal for seven games and then had a second ruled out for offside.
But Villa are now looking over their shoulders in the race for a place in next season’s Champions League as Tottenham can leapfrog them into fourth with victory over Brentford on Wednesday.
Newcastle climb up to seventh and within 11 points of Villa.
Luton thrash Brighton
Luton climbed out of the bottom three thanks to a stunning 4-0 win over Brighton as Elijah Adebayo scored a hat-trick.
Adebayo nodded in the opener after just 18 seconds and the Hatters were 2-0 up inside three minutes when Chiedozie Ogbene beat Jason Steele to a long pass over the top to walk the ball into an empty net.
Adebayo calmly slotted in at Steele’s near post to make it 3-0 before the break and completed his hat-trick 11 minutes into the second half.
Everton drop into the relegation zone after failing to take their chances in a 0-0 draw at Fulham.
Crystal Palace eased fears they could be dragged into a battle for survival by twice coming from behind to beat bottom-of-the-table Sheffield United 3-2.
Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise were unsurprisingly the star men as the Eagles secured just a second win in 13 games.
Twice Olise teed up Eze for stunning finishes in the first half before Olise scored the winner after the break to life Palace up to 14th.
Ben Brereton Diaz and James McAtee were on target for the Blades, but they are now nine points adrift of safety.
