By beating Crystal Palace easily (4-1) on Sunday, Arsenal made the hole on Manchester City, who played in the FA Cup this weekend, during the 28th day of the Premier League.
With 69 points, the Gunners are now eight ahead of the defending champion, even if the latter has a game in hand.
Eliminated Thursday in the round of 16 of the Europa League by Sporting Portugal, Arsenal has only the championship as its objective and seems very determined to win a first title for 20 years.
With just 11 games to go, the trophy seems to be getting closer and closer to the north London club.
On the side of the Eagles, on the other hand, the dismissal of Patrick Vieira, Friday, will not have produced any visible effect. Crystal Palace (12th) has still not won in 2023 and remains three points behind the first relegation player, West Ham.
They may regret that Wilfried Zaha’s strike, in the 12th minute, hit the post and then the back of Aaron Ramsdale before going out.
But Mikel Arteta’s men quickly took the lead thanks to an increasingly decisive Bukayo Saka.
After offering the opener to Gabriel Martinelli (1-0, 28th), the English international striker offered himself a double (2-0, 43rd and 4-1, 74th) to become the first player to cross the bar of 10 goals and 10 assists in the Premier League this season.
Granit Xhaka had worsened the mark even before the hour mark (3-0, 55th) and the goal of Jeffrey Schlupp, on a badly cleared corner (3-1, 63rd), will have been only one incident in a meeting largely controlled by the Gunners.
If their schedule still includes trips to Liverpool, Manchester City or Newcastle and the reception of Chelsea, the Gunners show no sign of weakness or nervousness when approaching the final sprint.
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