LONDON — Arsenal needed two Wolverhampton Wanderers own goals — the second deep in stoppage time — to escape with a 2-1 win that pushed the leaders five points clear at the top of the Premier League Saturday. Bukayo Saka forced both miscues, and Arsenal’s late wobble still ended in three points, Dec. 13, 2025.
Arsenal’s two-own-goal lifeline keeps the title race on a knife edge
It was the kind of win Arsenal will celebrate now — and study later. According to a Reuters match report, Arsenal moved to 36 points from 16 games while Manchester City (with a game in hand) sat five back on 31.
For 70 minutes, Wolves frustrated the league leaders and limited them to half-chances. The Premier League’s match report said Arsenal did not put a shot on target until the 68th minute, before the opener arrived in freakish fashion: Saka’s corner hit the post, rebounded off goalkeeper Sam Johnstone and spun in.
Arsenal still could not close the door. Substitute Tolu Arokodare headed Wolves level in the 90th minute, and the Emirates went from anxious to stunned. Then came the twist: four minutes into stoppage time, Saka curled in another cross and defender Yerson Mosquera, trying to beat Gabriel Jesus to it, headed into his own net.
70: Johnstone own goal (Saka corner).
90: Arokodare equalizer.
90+4: Mosquera own goal (Saka cross).
Arokodare’s equalizer made him the first Nigerian player to score a Premier League goal for Wolves, but it couldn’t stop another painful finish for a side marooned at the bottom.
“We’ll take the points and move forward,” Saka said. Wolves remained on two points from 16 games — a joint record-low start in top-flight history — while Arsenal turned immediately to what comes next: City at Crystal Palace on Sunday, then a trip for Arsenal to Everton next Saturday.
Salah returns, breaks the Rooney mark and steadies Liverpool
At Anfield, Liverpool found daylight early and history a little later. In The Guardian’s match report, Hugo Ekitike struck after 46 seconds against Brighton & Hove Albion and added a second after Mohamed Salah, recalled after a tense week, came on in the 26th minute following Joe Gomez’s injury.
Salah’s assist — a whipped corner finished by Ekitike’s header — was his 277th Premier League goal involvement for Liverpool, setting the record for a single club and moving him past Wayne Rooney’s 276 for Manchester United. Liverpool climbed to sixth on 26 points, seven behind Arsenal. With Salah due to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday, the reception and the record both felt like a reset.
Why this week feels familiar
Arsenal have lived the fine margins of a title chase before. A 2023 ESPN season recap captured how quickly momentum can turn — context that makes Saturday’s escape feel both huge and hazardous.
And Salah has been collecting milestones for years. Liverpool’s March 2023 club report tracked the day he became the Reds’ record Premier League scorer — a stepping-stone to Saturday’s latest mark.
Arsenal will not care how the points arrived; they’ll care that they arrived. But the league’s message was loud: even the leaders are one deflection away from dropping two.
