LONDON: Derbies are dangerous. Arsenal were reminded of this after they allowed West Ham to hit back at the London Stadium for a 2-2 draw after being two goals down in the first 10 minutes.

The turning point of the game – and, maybe, Arsenal’s Premier League campaign – came six minutes into the second half when Bukayo Saka missed a penalty which would have given them a 3-1 lead.

Three minutes later and the score, instead, was 2-2 after a Jarrod Bowen equaliser. Arsenal, instead of sitting six points clear of Manchester City, are now four points clear of the champions who have one match in hand.

Arsenal have seven matches remaining. They host Southampton on Friday and then go to the Etihad Stadium on April 26 in an early potential title decider.

The Gunners began in style and took the lead after seven minutes through Gabriel Jesus’s fourth goal in three matches. Captain Martin Odegaard added a second three minutes later. Then Arsenal became complacent and careless. Thomas Partey was robbed of the ball by Declan Rice, Gabriel brought down Lucas Paqueta and Said Benrahma pulled one goal back from the penalty spot.

Penalty miss

Mikel Arteta’s men could have regained the two-goal difference after the interval when Michail Antonio handled the ball. England winger Saka had converted both his previous penalties this season. Now, however, he shot wide.

The failure was costly. Three minutes later Bowen volleyed home Thilo Kehrer’s through pass for Hammers’ equaliser. It could have been worse for Arsenal: Antonio headed against the bar in the final moments.

Arsenal, for the second time in seven days, had to settle for a point after taking a two-goal lead. This was a repeat of the scenario against Liverpool at Anfield a week earlier.

Arteta said: “Very disappointing. The way we started was superb then we lost purpose, gave them hope and conceded a terrible penalty. The title race? It’s the same as it was before the game. We can’t control anyone else. We can only go out to win our own games.”

United move up

Manchester United shrugged off increasing injury problems to climb to the edge of the title race with a 2-0 defeat of Nottingham Forest.

They did so without Marcel Sabitzer who suffered a groin strain in the warm-up. He was not missed.

Antony opened the scoring after poor defending in the first half and provided the assist for Diogo Dalot’s first league goal in the second half. Dalot was making his 100th appearance for United in all competitions.

No repeat this time of United conceding a two-goal lead, as they had against Sevilla in the Europa League last Thursday.

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