The Frenchman was impressed with his side’s victory over Tottenham and believes the result blew the battle for the Premier League wide open

Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal made the title race “very interesting” by defeating Tottenham on Sunday.

An early goal from Tomas Rosicky gave the Gunners a narrow 1-0 win at White Hart Lane and kept them level on points with second-placed Liverpool, who thumped Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford.

The results mean the two sides sit four points behind the Blues with a game in hand each – while Manchester City lurk in fourth with three games in hand on the leaders – and Wenger is sure the race for the trophy will go to the wire.

“We wanted to get back in the race and the defeat of Chelsea, the win of Liverpool and of Man City away makes the final sprint very interesting,” he told Arsenal’s official website. “It put us back in a good position.

“It’s not in our hands because even if we win our game in hand we are still a point behind but if we continue to win our games that will of course be very important. Then it is in our hands.

“Then it’s just focus, recover, focus and try to win the next game.”

Arsenal needed to be at their best to win at White Hart Lane, with a spirited Spurs intent on victory, and Wenger was impressed by the focus his defenders displayed during the game.

“It’s a very good day for us because we were under pressure to win this game and we won it,” he added.

“The pressure of Tottenham was great but we absorbed it well with a great focus, great performance from our defenders and on the break we always looked dangerous.

“But we couldn’t finish the game off. So we needed zero mistakes at the back and did that in a very convincing way.”

The Spaniard found the loss at Old Trafford tough to take and has promised fans the club will work hard to deliver an immediate response

Juan Mata is confident Manchester United will quickly put their 3-0 thrashing at the hands of rivals Liverpool behind them.

United were convincingly beaten by the Anfield outfit at Old Trafford, with Steven Gerrard scoring two penalties – and missing a third – before Luis Suarez secured the win, while Nemanja Vidic was sent off.

Mata admitted “everything went bad” during the game after a positive week of training and preparation.

“The storm will pass and the sun will rise again,” Mata wrote in his blog for Grada360. “I have no doubt. Besides, no one said this would be easy, but this is football.

“It gives you fantastic moments but also very hard times you have to cope with, when you have to show pride and professionalism until the end. And when all this is gone I’m sure I will be a more mature footballer.

“I have to say that our week at the training ground had been good and we were very hopeful ahead of this derby.

“However, the day of the match everything went bad. It was a tough defeat and I want to tell you that we will give everything we have in order to forget about this in the remaining games.”

United face Olympiakos in the Champions League at Old Trafford on Wednesday, hoping to overturn a two-goal deficit and advance to the quarter-finals.

Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over the Blues has handed Manuel Pellegrini’s men the advantage in the title race according to the bookmakers

bet365 now make Manchester City their 13/10 (2.30) favourites to regain their Premier League title from rivals Manchester United.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men beat Hull 2-0 in Saturday’s early kick off thanks to a masterclass from David Silva, who led the visitors to three points despite playing the majority of the game with 10 men following Vincent Kompany’s dismisal after just 10 minutes.

It was the late Saturday game that caused the odds to shift most though, as Chelsea suffered a 1-0 defeat at Villa Park thanks to a deft finish from Fabian Delph. Jose Mourinho was sent to the stands by referee Chris Foy, who also gave both Ramires and Willian their marching orders in a chaotic second half.

Chelsea are out to 15/8 (2.88) to finish top of the divison but both top teams may be looking over their shoulders at a potential late arrival to the race in the shape of Liverpool, who have now won their last five consecutive league games after dispatching Manchester United 3-0 at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

bet365 now make Liverpool an industry best 10/3 (4.33) to get the better of their title rivals, a price that may well be of interest to punters given that they have a seemingly favourable fixture list to come compared to both Chelsea and Manchester City, especially with Pellegrini’s side having three games to make up on the Blues who still sit top of the division.

David Moyes has explained that the Manchester United role is proving harder than he anticipated and while the Old Trafford support seems somewhat unmoved by the disappointing result, the United boss is now into 7/2 (4.50) to be the next Premier League manager to leave his post, although it seems unlikely that he will do so until the end of the season at the very earliest.

Arsenal claimed the local bragging rights in north London after a 1-0 win over Tottenham ensured they remained in the top three places, but at 12/1 (13.0), it appears the bookmakers believe the Gunners’ race is already run.

Tim Sherwood has been publicly critical of some of Tottenham’s recent performances and the Arsenal defeat compounded a miserable performance in the Europa League, he is 9/2 (5.50) to be the next boss to go with Pepe Mel the market leader at 2/1 (3.0) .

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