Gunners stay on target, but Slot's machine jams again vs Sunderland

Another win for Arsenal. More misery for Liverpool and its under-fire manager Arne Slot.

While Arsenal accelerated its Premier League title charge with a 2-0 victory over Brentford to regain a five-point lead at the top of the table, Liverpool needed a late own-goal to salvage a 1-1 draw with Sunderland at Anfield.

Slot will be back under pressure, with his team languishing in eighth place in what's quickly becoming a disappointing title defense, and his decision to leave star forward Mohamed Salah out of the starting lineup for a second straight game likely to be heavily scrutinized.

"It's clear," Slot said, "that teams that play us now think they can get a result."

Arguably a bigger shock came at Elland Road, where Chelsea fell to a 3-1 loss to Leeds in a blow to its hopes of challenging for the title.

Chelsea dropped to fourth place and nine points adrift of Arsenal, which stretched its unbeaten run in all competitions to 18 matches and is looking good for a first league title since 2004.

Arsenal's strength in depth was on show in the comfortable win over Brentford that maintained the team's unbeaten record at Emirates Stadium this season.

The leader was without first-choice center-backs Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba because of injury, while manager Mikel Arteta chose to start with stars Bukayo Saka, Jurrien Timber and Eberechi Eze on the bench.

Two of the backups combined for the 11th-minute opener, as Mikel Merino headed in Ben White's cross, before Saka came on as a substitute and scored the second goal with a shot that crawled over the line in stoppage time.

"It's unbelievable what he has done again today. Not only the goal, because the goal is magnificent, but also the movement, the quality, the finish, how he times it and then his work rate. It's phenomenal," Arteta said.

Injuries are mounting up for Arteta, though — especially at centerback. Cristhian Mosquera has been filling in for Saliba, but also faces a spell out after limping off late in the first half. Midfielder Declan Rice was withdrawn with a suspected calf problem in the 83rd.

"Obviously, it's never good news. Declan had to come off. We don't know. We have to see tomorrow what he's got," said Arteta, who is also without Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard.

Could've been Wirtz

Florian Wirtz is still waiting for his first goal for Liverpool since his offseason move from Bayer Leverkusen, with his shot for the 81st-minute equalizer deflecting off Sunderland defender Nordi Mukiele and spinning into the net for what officially went down as an own goal.

Sunderland, which is in sixth place on its return to the top flight and defying most pundits' expectations, benefitted from a deflection to take the lead in the 67th. Chemsdine Talbi's long-range effort hit Virgil van Dijk on the leg and ricocheted into the far corner beyond Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker.

The 2-0 win at West Ham on Sunday ended Liverpool's three-match losing run but proved to be only brief respite for Slot and his underperforming players.

"We weren't lucky enough to get the win, but in recent weeks we would have lost this game so that is a positive," said slot. "We tried everything to get the winner."

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