Arsenal defender Jurriën Timber wants to use his sides’s last-gasp defeat at Aston Villa as motivation to get their Premier League title bid back on track.

The Gunners saw an 18-match unbeaten run in all competitions end as Emiliano Buendía scored the with the last kick of the game to give Villa a 2-1 win.

It turned into a damaging day for Mikel Arteta’s side as their lead at the summit was cut to just two points after Manchester City beat Sunderland.

But Timber, who had to play at centre-back amid an injury crisis, says his side need to use the loss to drive them on.

“I think in the end you need to use it as a motivation and in the end as a strength, because it happened and we need to accept it and we need to get better,” he said.

“At the same time, within the season, I think these moments happen, set-backs, and you just have to step up after that.”

Timber, usually a right-back, was forced to play in the middle with injuries to central pair William Saliba and Gabriel.

Cristhian Mosquera has also been ruled out for “weeks” with an ankle problem and Timber says the fitness issues have disrupted Arsenal’s campaign.

“Yes, it is [a disruption],” he said. “I think we have a great squad. I think players that come in always do really good, but obviously it’s not always easy.

“We can’t play every week with the same players and if players go out again, it’s tough.

“But I think it’s also part of… it happens within the season.

“I think it happens at every club. With us it’s the same and we just have to manage that with and win our games.”

Victory for Villa announced their arrival in the title race as they moved to within three points of Arsenal.

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Unai Emery’s side are on a roll, winning nine of their last 10 Premier League games.

They took the lead at Villa Park through Matty Cash‘s opener but were pegged back by Leandro Trossard early in the second half.

Buendia’s goal sparked mass scenes of celebration at the death.

Cash said on the club’s official website: “We’ve got to take it game by game and just keep working hard and taking it in our stride.

“At the minute, we’re on a great run, but we know it’s not even Christmas yet.

“We have to keep being demanding, keep being consistent and we’ll see where it takes us.”

When does a Premier League title wobble become cause for the panic button to be pressed? From an Arsenal perspective, it is when Manchester City start to appear in the rearview mirror, and that anxious moment has now arrived for Mikel Arteta and his players.

The Gunners are two points clear of Pep Guardiola’s City at the top of the table, with in-form Aston Villa one point further back in third place following their dramatic 2-1 win against Arsenal on Saturday.

With bottom-club Wolves due to visit the Emirates on Saturday, Arsenal would expect to open a five-point lead over City ahead of their difficult trip to fourth-placed Crystal Palace a day later, but this title race is not about testing the resolve of Guardiola’s team. It is about whether Arsenal can hold their nerve with City breathing down their necks.

Arsenal have plenty of ghosts to exorcise if they are to win their first title since Arsene Wenger’s 2003-04 “Invincibles” became the only team in Premier League history to go through a league campaign without suffering a defeat.

Only Liverpool and Manchester United (both 20) have won more league titles than Arsenal’s 13, but the Gunners have never gone so long between titles as their current wait, which will be 22 years by the end of this season. Arteta has also won just one major trophy — the 2019-20 FA Cup — in six years as Arsenal manager, so the 43-year-old is overdue when it comes to proving he has that crucial quality of being able to successfully guide a team through the stresses and strains of a title race.

– Olley: Arsenal’s thrilling late loss at Villa blows title race wide open
– Timber says Arsenal must use loss as “motivation and strength”
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Those silverware droughts for both Arsenal and Arteta will provide psychological hurdles between now and May, but the biggest challenge facing the Gunners is that being posed by City.

When Arsenal sat atop the Premier League with a six-point lead after 12 games last month, it was one of those key pointers toward the likely winners of the title because no team has previously failed to win it after being six points clear at the same stage of the season.

But on the flipside, on the last three occasions in which Arsenal have been at the top after 12 games (albeit with a smaller lead), they have failed to win the title. And guess which team finished at the top on each occasion?

Yes, you’re right: Manchester City.

Since moving six points clear with a 4-1 home win against Tottenham Hotspur on Nov. 23, Arsenal have collected just four points from a possible nine, with a 1-1 draw at Chelsea and the weekend’s loss at Villa coming on either side of a routine 2-0 win against Brentford at the Emirates.

And in typical fashion, despite their frailties and inconsistencies this season, City have capitalized on Arsenal’s mini-wobble by recording three successive wins against Leeds United, Fulham and Sunderland. In the space of three games, City have reduced a seven-point gap to just two. And they are beginning to turn the screw just when Arsenal are hitting an injury crisis with key defenders William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães and Cristhian Mosquera all ruled out.

To make matters worse for Arsenal, City striker Erling Haaland is running clear in the race for the Premier League’s Golden Boot award, with 15 goals in 15 games, and Guardiola will have money to spend again in January. Furthermore, no other coach possesses the experience of Guardiola when it comes to guiding a team to glory in the second half of the season.

Arteta has assembled Arsenal’s strongest squad since Wenger’s “Invincibles,” and they have been the best and most consistent team in the Premier League this season. They are still the title favorites and deservedly so, but they held the same status in 2022-23 and 2023-24, and each time, City reined them in to finish the season as champions. So why should this season be any different? Are there any clues that point to Arsenal finally going the distance?

Apart from the strength of their squad, which is certainly being tested defensively right now, there is no one stat that says that this will be Arsenal’s year, but there are some concerning ones.

For a start, they have failed to defeat any of their title rivals so far this season, losing at Liverpool and Villa, and being held to draws by City and Chelsea.

They have no player like Haaland in their side who can be relied upon to win tight games. While Haaland is scoring at the rate of a goal a game, no Arsenal player has scored more than four league goals. Four players (Eberechi Eze, Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyökeres) share their top-scorer spot with four apiece.

And while Arsenal boast the best defensive record in the league, conceding just nine goals, a third of those have been conceded in the past two away games. Injuries on defense are already beginning to have an effect.

City are certainly not perfect and are nowhere near as convincing as some of Guardiola’s greatest teams — the fact that they conceded four goals in a 5-4 win at Fulham last week underscores that reality — but they have the mindset and the proven record of turning it up when the pressure is on in the second half of the season.

Arsenal can hold on to the fact that none of their current title challengers are the complete package this season, and they may end up being the best by virtue of their strengths outweighing their weaknesses. But what they can’t escape is the knowledge that City have repeatedly answered the questions that continue to trouble them. And that could come back to haunt them.

Crystal Palace left it late to secure a 2-1 victory away at Fulham and move up to fourth in the Premier League on Sunday while Brighton & Hove Albion were held to a 1-1 draw at home by West Ham United.
Skipper Marc Guehi scored a late winner in the London derby to move Palace up to 26 points with their fifth away win of the season to sit a point above Chelsea in fifth. Fulham remain in 15th.
“It is good (to be in the top four), we keep our feet on the ground, it is only one win against a really good side and we now focus on the next game,” Guehi said.
“It was a tough game, Fulham are a very good side who create a lot of chances with the rotation they have out wide, so it was important we stayed in the game and stay together.
“It is credit to the whole team, not me, as when everyone does their job it is easy.”
Palace took the lead after Adam Wharton found Eddie Nketiah in the box and the striker produced a smart finish to beat goalkeeper Bernd Leno for his second league goal of the season.
However, Fulham equalised in the 38th minute when Harry Wilson played a sublime one-two pass with Raul Jimenez, turning at the edge of the box before pulling the trigger with the outside of his boot to beat Dean Henderson’s dive.
Fulham thought they had turned it around when Emile Smith Rowe scored from a rebound but the goal was chalked off when replays showed Samuel Chukwueze had strayed offside in the build-up.
With a draw seemingly on the cards, Palace scored in the 87th minute from a corner when Guehi rose above the defence to head home the winner, with the captain celebrating in front of delirious Palace fans with his arms outstretched.
 
Brighton held by West Ham
Brighton and West Ham shared the spoils after Jarrod Bowen’s stunning second-half goal for the visitors was cancelled out by Georginio Rutter’s equaliser in stoppage time.
Bowen’s 73rd-minute strike gave West Ham a ray of hope but Rutter pounced at the death to deny the visitors three valuable points that would have taken them out of the relegation zone.
The result leaves West Ham in 18th place with 13 points, two behind Nottingham Forest, while Brighton moved up to seventh with 23 points.
“It feels amazing for the first goal for the season. I am very happy but we only take one point so that is frustrating,” Rutter told Sky Sports.
“I think West Ham are very good and they are very compact. We were waiting for them to make a mistake.”
In a match played in driving rain and swirling winds, both teams managed to create chances in a goalless first half.
West Ham nearly scored the opener in the second half when Bowen danced through Brighton’s defence before forcing a fine save from Bart Verbruggen, who then made a second save when Crysencio Summerville attempted an acrobatic volley.