London — Mikel Arteta urged Arsenal to dig deep after a shock 1-0 defeat at Everton dented the Premier League leaders' title bid, while Liverpool's troubled season hit a new low with a woeful 3-0 loss at Wolves on Saturday.
Arteta's side were beaten for just the second time in 20 league games this season as James Tarkowski headed Everton's winner in the 60th minute.
The Gunners' only other league defeat came at Manchester United in September.
Arsenal still lead second placed Manchester City by five points, but the champions can close the gap to two points if they win at Tottenham on Sunday.
"This is not going to be a rose pathway," said Arteta of Arsenal's road to the title.
"This is going to be tricky and we will have to dig in and play much better than we did today."
Everton came into the game on a run of four league defeats at Goodison Park for the first time since 1958.
That disastrous form cost Frank Lampard his job and Sean Dyche's appointment got the desired bounce with a first win in 11 games.
"The minimum requirement is maximum effort and we saw that today," said Dyche after his first game in charge.
While third-bottom Everton boosted their bid to avoid relegation, their Merseyside rivals Liverpool crashed to a fourth defeat in their last seven games in all competitions, a miserable run featuring only one win.
Jurgen Klopp's side are languishing in 10th place, 10 points adrift of the top four amid their worst season of Klopp's seven-year reign.
It is the first time since 2012 that Liverpool have lost three successive away league games, while they have already conceded more league goals this season than they did in the entirety of last term.
❌ 0-3 vs Wolves
❌ 0-0 vs Chelsea
❌ 0-3 vs Brighton
❌ 1-3 vs Brentford
A frustrated Jurgen Klopp reacts to Liverpool's loss at Molineux, making it no wins in their last four league matches. pic.twitter.com/16YCZZXl18
Facing a struggling team who kicked off in the relegation zone, Liverpool immediately crumbled as Joel Matip deflected Hwang Hee-chan's cross into his own net after five minutes.
Wolves debutant Craig Dawson doubled the lead after 12 minutes when the defender smashed in from 10 yards.
With Wolves fans taunting Klopp with chants of "you're getting sacked in the morning", Ruben Neves sealed the rout with a 71st minute finish from Adama Traore's cross.
United survive Casemiro dismissal
Ten-man Manchester United cemented their grip on third place with a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace.
😤 "There's just no stopping him at the moment!"
— SuperSport Football ⚽️ (@SSFootball) February 4, 2023
Marcus Rashford scores yet again to make it 2-0 against Palace.#MUNCRY pic.twitter.com/budydwQ4UQ
Two days before the anniversary of the 1958 Munich air crash that killed eight United players on the way home from a match against Red Star Belgrade, Old Trafford paid an emotional pre-match tribute to the victims of the tragedy.
In the seventh minute, United were awarded a penalty after VAR showed Will Hughes handled Marcus Rashford's cross, with Bruno Fernandes coolly converting from the spot.
Rashford struck in the 62nd minute with a composed finish from Luke Shaw's cross.
United were reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute when Brazil midfielder Casemiro grabbed Will Hughes by the throat.
Casemiro is sent off for putting his hands around the neck of Will Hughes 🟥 pic.twitter.com/Zhdos3xdGT
Jeff Schlupp's 76th minute strike set up a tense finish but United held on to win six successive home league games for the first time since 2017.
Leicester twice came from behind to win 4-2 at Aston Villa.
Villa went ahead after 10 minutes through Ollie Watkins, but James Maddison levelled two minutes later.
Unai Emery's men regained the lead with a 32nd minute own goal from Leicester debutant Harry Souttar.
But Leicester equalised again in the 41st minute through Kelechi Iheanacho and Tete netted on his debut in first half stoppage-time before Dennis Praet wrapped up the points in the 79th minute.
Brentford climbed to seventh place and pushed bottom of the table Southampton deeper into trouble with a 3-0 win at the Community Stadium, the goals coming from Ben Mee, Bryan Mbeumo and Mathias Jensen.
Kaoru Mitoma's 87th minute header gave sixth placed Brighton a 1-0 victory against second bottom Bournemouth.
AFP