An early goal from Ollie Watkins helped Aston Villa beat a sloppy Arsenal 1-0 on Saturday to move up to eighth in the Premier League standings, consigning the visitors to a second defeat in as many games.
While Villa leapfrogged struggling Tottenham Hotspur, the result left Arsenal 10th on 31 points after a midweek loss at Wolverhampton Wanderers, two points behind their north London rivals having played two games more.
"It's a big result. We've played some good stuff but not got the results so delighted today. We had to grind it out and that's what it's all about," Watkins told BT Sport. It was the 25-year-old's 10th goal of the season.
Villa took the lead after 74 seconds when Bertrand Traore pounced on a loose back pass by full back Cedric Soares and cut the ball back to Ollie Watkins, whose first time effort was deflected past Arsenal's debutant goalkeeper Mat Ryan.
Arsenal's best chance to equalise came from a Granit Xhaka free kick which looked destined for the top corner until the Gunner's former keeper Emiliano Martinez at full stretch pushed it around the post with a fingertip save.
Mikel Arteta introduced Martin Odegaard for Cedric but though the visitors had plenty of promising attacks in the second half, they failed to find the final pass or cross to test Martinez again.
Bukayo Saka's move from midfield to left back provided Arsenal with a left-footed presence on the flank, and he nearly assisted Odegaard for his first goal for the club. But the Norwegian skied it over the crossbar.
Ryan was also kept busy with Watkins, Jack Grealish and Ross Barkley regularly testing the Australian, who made six saves.
"The values of being a good team, the work ethic... I thought we saw that in bundles today against a really good offensive team," Villa manager Dean Smith said.
"We started with a good intensity that set us up really well. It had to be a good defensive performance but their keeper had to make some really good saves as well."
In-form Brighton held 1-1 at Burnley
Brighton & Hove Albion were held to a 1-1 draw at Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday after a Johann Gudmundsson strike cancelled out a first half header from Lewis Dunk.
Brighton, who won three of their last four games, including wins over Tottenham Hotspur and champions Liverpool, were forced to share the spoils after failing to hold on to a lead yet again this season but Dunk was satisfied with the result.
"If you'd offered me seven points at the start of this week I'd have snapped your hand off. It's been a good week," Dunk told Sky Sports.
Burnley started brightly, with Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez tested twice in the first half, first going low to deny Dwight McNeil's free kick before denying James Tarkowski on the line at the back post following a corner kick.
But despite Burnley's ascendancy, they conceded the opener at the other end from a corner in the 36th minute when Brighton skipper Dunk rose over the defence and powered a header home for his third league goal of the season.
"From the start of the season we've improved massively at set pieces," Dunk added. "We've worked on it and have started causing problems for the opposition. Hopefully we can start getting more goals from those situations."
Brighton then conceded their first goal in five games eight minutes after the restart when Sanchez parried a save into the path of Gudmundsson and the unmarked Icelandic winger had time to control the ball to strike it into the bottom corner.
But Burnley were unable to capitalise on that spark and Gudmundsson said they were disappointed after picking up only a point.
"In the second half we definitely put them in a bit more trouble. We should have taken the chances we had," Gudmundsson said.
"Having gone 1-0 down, it was a good comeback for us but there's disappointment we didn't take all three points."
Burnley are 17th in the standings with 23 points, nine points above the relegation zone, while Brighton are two points above them in 15th.
Newcastle hang on with nine men to beat Southampton
Newcastle United hung on for a valuable 3-2 victory over Southampton despite finishing a rip-roaring Premier League contest with nine men at St James' Park on Saturday.
Southampton, hammered 9-0 at Manchester United in midweek, fell 2-0 behind after 25 minutes with Joe Willock netting on his Newcastle debut and Miguel Almiron scoring via a large deflection off Jan Bednarek.
Takumi Minamino, also on his debut, replied for Southampton with a superb finish, but just before halftime the visitors self-destructed in defence again to allow Almiron to score and send the hosts in with a 3-1 lead.
A sensational free kick by James Ward-Prowse three minutes into the second half gave Southampton impetus, and Newcastle went down to 10 men when Jeff Hendrick was sent off.
As the sleet came down, Newcastle were reduced to nine men when defender Fabian Schar was carried off on a stretcher after a clash of legs with Bednarek with the hosts having already used up all their substitutions.
But Steve Bruce's dogged side hung on to give themselves a healthy buffer above the relegation zone.
They have 25 points from 23 games, with Southampton on 29 from 22 after five league defeats in a row.