Arsenal regain foothold in Premier League title race with win over Leicester

Arsenal regained a five-point lead in the Premier League title race as they edged Leicester City with a 1-0 win at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

Gabriel Martinelli scored the game's only goal a minute into the second half to open up a five-point gap on second-placed Manchester City. Mikel Arteta's side have recovered with two straight victories following a four match winless run earlier this month.

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"We create more belief in and around the club. I had full faith that the players could do it [come back from recent defeats]," Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta said.

"It was about coming back to some basics, some details that in the past had taken games away from us. Not conceding, giving chances away, is so important in this league."

Arsenal, who were captained by Oleksandr Zinchenko as a mark of respect on the first anniversary of Ukraine's conflict with Russia, thought they had opened the scoring on 28 minutes through Leandro Trossard. However, a VAR check ruled the goal out as it found Ben White fouled goalkeeper Danny Ward before Trossard dispatched his strike into the top corner

The Premier League leaders weren't to be denied and opened the scoring on 46 minutes through Martinelli.

Trossard played a neat ball through to the Brazil international, who controlled and slotted past Ward. The 21-year-old, who also scored in Arsenal's 4-2 win over Aston Villa last week, was caught by Wilfred Ndidi upon releasing his shot and couldn't celebrate due to injury. 

The hosts, without the influential James Maddison in midfield due to illness, never got going in the match and failed to muster a shot on target.

"They were clearly better than us," Leicester coach Brendan Rodgers said. "We were too passive when we had the ball, we weren't quick enough with it.

"When we got to the final third we could not find that last pass. They are at the top of the league for a reason, and I thought they showed that."

The result could have been more comfortable, with Arsenal having the ball in the net again only for it to be ruled out for offside, but they had no trouble seeing out the victory to keep them on course for a first league title in 19 years.

Arsenal have now won 10 of their 13 away league games this season, one more than in the whole of last term. It is the fastest they have reached 10 away wins in any league campaign.

City will look to close the gap on Arsenal as they face Bournemouth later on Saturday.

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.