In what was a throwback result from days gone by, Premier League leaders Arsenal secured a 1-0 away win at the King Power Stadium against a relegation-threatened Leicester City as Mikel Arteta’s young Gunners outfit make it six points from six after their three-match unbeaten run had many fans assuming their 2022-23 title challenge had rolled over into a tailspin.
Despite Arsenal’s dominance on the ball in the first forty-five minutes and keeping Leicester City on zero attempted shots, it was relatively tame overall in the wake of two goals being pulled back. Arteta’s men thought they went 1-0 up after a brilliantly-struck effort from outside the box via Leandro Trossard, but the Belgian international was denied for a foul on Danny Ward just before his goal.
Leicester was denied as well after Kelechi Iheanacho was free and clear to dink his effort over Aaron Ramsdale, but his well-taken effort was pulled back for offside, and both clubs settled into more of a rhythmic back-and-forth before heading into their respective changing rooms.
But the Gunners once more came out swinging just after the half-time interval just as they did last weekend against Aston Villa, this time through Gabriel Martinelli less than two minutes after the restart, when Trossard found room down the left on the end of Gabierl Magalhães’ clearance before putting the Brazilian into a goalscoring position to slot past Ward.
Both sides exchanged half-chances for the rest of the second half, though neither was able to add anything on the scoresheet before the full-time whistle. Though the scoreline will deceive and have many thinking it was a close run thing, the Gunners remained dominant from start to finish and never looked like surrendering a share of the points on day away from the capital that will see them end the weekend program still sitting top of the table.
Leicester City Player Ratings
- GK: Danny Ward - 6
- RB: Timothy Castagne - 6
- CB: Harry Souttar - 6
- CB: Wout Faes - 6.5
- LB: Victor Kristiansen - 6.5
- DM: Wilfried Ndidi - 7
- CM: Dennis Praet - 6.5
- CM: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall - 7
- RW: Tetê - 6
- LW: Harvey Barnes - 6.5
- CF: Kelechi Iheanacho - 6
- Sub: Jamie Vardy - 6
- Sub: Youri Tielemans - 6
- Sub: Patson Daka - 6
- Sub: Boubakary Soumaré - 6
- Sub: Ricardo Pereira - N/A
Arsenal Player Ratings
- GK: Aaron Ramsdale - 6.5
- RB: Ben White - 7
- CB: William Saliba - 7
- CB: Gabriel Magalhães - 7
- LB: Oleksandr Zinchenko - 7.5
- CM: Jorginho - 7
- CM: Granit Xhaka - 6.5
- CAM: Martin Ødegaard - 6.5
- RW: Bukayo Saka - 7
- LW: Gabriel Martinelli - 7
- CF: Leandro Trossard - 7.5
- Sub: Eddie Nketiah - 6
- Sub: Thomas Partey - 6
- Sub: Takehiro Tomiyasu - 6
