Gunners 'have to be' in Champs League

LONDON • Arsenal returned to the Premier League top four after goals from Thomas Partey and Alexandre Lacazette earned them a 2-0 win at home to Leicester on Sunday.

The win moves the Gunners a point ahead of Manchester United (50) but crucially, Mikel Arteta's side have three games in hand on the Red Devils for the final Champions League slot.

Arsenal have now won their last five games and nine wins from their last 11 top-flight encounters have transformed their season after a poor start to the campaign.

A return to the Champions League, after a four-season absence, is now within their grasp if they can maintain their form over the final 12 games and Arteta wants no let-up in momentum.

"We have to be there, we should be there. Our history obliges us to be there but we are not there yet and there are still a lot of games to play," said the Spaniard, whose side host Liverpool tomorrow - one of their games in hand.

"We have an excellent group of people at the club who believe in what we do and then you have to put performance into results. The last few months, we have been more consistent."

Partey put Arsenal ahead in the 11th minute with a simple, glancing near-post header from a Gabriel Martinelli corner, which was poorly defended by the Foxes.

The home side looked confident and creative with Martin Odegaard impressive in the centre of midfield but Leicester posed the occasional question on the break.

Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale produced a superb one-handed save to keep out a header from Harvey Barnes but without the threat of the injured Jamie Vardy, the Foxes lacked penetration.

The second goal came after Kasper Schmeichel parried an Odegaard free kick and Partey's goal-bound header was cleared off the line by Luke Thomas.

A video replay showed there was a handball by Caglar Soyuncu in the process and Lacazette drilled the spot-kick into the roof of the net to put the game to bed.

Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers felt the decision had been unfair as he called the handball "accidental".

With his 12th-placed side out of the running to qualify for Europe and having exited both the FA Cup and League Cup, they now have only the Europa Conference League to play for this season.

Leicester face French Ligue 1 side Rennes in the second leg of the round of 16 on Thursday and hold a 2-0 lead. "We are not choosy over trophies as we only have the one we can play for. It is a real focus for us but not to take anything away from the Premier League as we want to finish as high as we can," Rodgers said.

REUTERS