Arsenal won 2-1 at West Bromwich Albion on Saturday to climb into the Champions League places at Chelsea's expense, while Aston Villa claimed a precious win in their fight to avoid relegation from the Premier League. A brace from Tomas Rosicky gave Arsenal victory at The Hawthorns, but they allowed West Brom to come back into the game after Per Mertesacker was sent off for bringing down Shane Long in the penalty area.
James Morrison drilled the resulting penalty down the middle to reduce the arrears, but Arsenal held on to move into fourth place above Chelsea, who welcome Sunderland and their newly appointed manager Paolo Di Canio to Stamford Bridge on Sunday. Rosicky proved his worth in the early stages of the game when he cleared a header from Claudio Yacob off his own goal-line.
In the 20th minute he distinguished himself at the other end, adroitly heading Gervinho's well-struck cross from the left past home goalkeeper Ben Foster. The Czech Republic midfielder claimed his second five minutes into the second half, ramming home at the second attempt after Foster blocked his initial attempt from the edge of the box. Mertesacker's mistimed lunge granted West Brom a lifeline that Morrison duly grasped with 19 minutes left, but Arsene Wenger's side survived a late onslaught from the home side as they closed to within a point of third-place Tottenham Hotspur.
"We now we have one target - to win our games," said Arsenal manager Wenger. Meanwhile, Matthew Lowton and Christian Benteke scored potentially crucial late goals to give Villa a 3-1 win at Stoke City that lifted Paul Lambert's team out of the relegation zone and drew the hosts into trouble.
Gabriel Agbonlahor converted at the near post from Lowton's right-wing cross to give Villa a ninth-minute lead, only for Michael Kightly to equalise for Stoke in the 80th minute. Stoke, who have won just once in 13 games, are one point better off in 14th place.
Reading's hopes of avoiding relegation were seriously compromised after a 2-0 loss at home to manager Nigel Adkins's former club Southampton left them eight points from safety with only six games remaining. Elsewhere on Saturday, Norwich City were denied only a second win in 15 games in an entertaining 2-2 draw at home to Swansea City.
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