City win premier battle vs Arsenal

LONDON, February 16

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Clinical Manchester City knocked Arsenal off their Premier League perch as second-half goals by Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland earned the champions a 3-1 victory in a crunch top-of-the-table clash at The Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.

Arsenal had come from a goal down to level the match and looked capable of ending a 10-game losing streak in the league against City but they ultimately came up short as their hopes of a first league title since 2004 suffered a setback.

Mikel Arteta’s side, top of the standings since August, hit back strongly after Kevin de Bruyne’s 24th-minute opener and were deservedly level through Bukayo Saka’s penalty. But they struggled to maintain the intensity after the break and hardly helped themselves with a succession of errors.

City had a penalty overturned by VAR but kept probing and took the lead when Grealish fired in his third league goal of the season in the 72nd minute.

Haaland then netted his 26th league goal of the campaign to silence the home crowd and put Pep Guardiola’s side on 51 points, the same as Arsenal but with a superior goal difference.

Dortmund edge Chelsea

Dortmund (Germany): Lots of talent, but not the results to match. It’s becoming a familiar story for Chelsea.

Despite spending record sums on new signings, Chelsea fell short once again in a 1-0 loss at Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday and will need to improve in the second leg to avoid elimination in the Champions League Round of 16. Karim Adeyemi sprinted the length of the field to score the only goal on a lightning counterattack after Chelsea created — and missed — many of the best chances.

Benzema surpasses Raul

Madrid: Karim Benzema converted two first-half penalty kicks in Real Madrid’s 4-0 win over Elche and became the team’s second-highest scorer in the La Liga with 230 goals. Marco Asensio and Luka Modric also scored on the night. — Agencies