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Declan Rice shrugged off a knee injury to extend Arsenal’s advantage at the top of the Premier League to six points with a come-from-behind 3-2 win at Bournemouth.

A rare Gabriel Magalhaes error gifted the Cherries an early opener through Evanilson on Saturday, but the Brazilian quickly redeemed himself to level.

Rice had been a doubt after missing Tuesday’s 4-1 demolition of Aston Villa due to knee swelling.

The England international returned to the starting lineup and doubled his tally for the season with two composed finishes either side of the hour mark.

Eli Kroupi’s fine strike gave Bournemouth hope, but Arsenal comfortably saw out the closing stage to move seven points clear of Manchester City, who host managerless Chelsea in their game in hand on Sunday.

There had been a glimmer of hope for Pep Guardiola’s men when Arsenal conceded after just 10 minutes.

Gabriel mishit his attempted cross-field pass towards Jurrien Timber and presented the ball to his compatriot Evanilson, who slotted past David Raya for his first home goal of the season.

Arsenal’s towering centre-back netted on his first start for nearly two months against Villa in midweek and showed his eye for goal once more to equalise within six minutes

Gabriel pounced to slam home Noni Madueke’s deflected cross for his 20th Premier League goal since he joined the Gunners in 2020 — seven more than any other defender.

Rice has also turned into a useful source of important goals since being pushed into a more advanced role this season.

He was perfectly picked out by Martin Odegaard to slot in from the edge of the box to put the visitors in front on 56 minutes.

Bukayo Saka came off the bench to create Arsenal’s third as Rice swept home his cut-back.

Bournemouth remain without a win, stretching back 11 games to October 26.

However, only five sides have scored more Premier League goals this season than Andoni Iraola’s men.

A stunning strike by Kropi from long range set up a nervy finale.

But Mikel Arteta’s men held firm to take another big step towards ending their 22-year wait to lift the Premier League title.

Villa beat Forest, while West Ham ’embarrassed’ at Wolves

Aston Villa beat struggling Nottingham Forest 3-1 at their home fortress to ease the pain of their midweek mauling by Arsenal, leapfrogging Manchester City into second place in the Premier League.

Ollie Watkins’s strike on the cusp of half-time gave Unai Emery’s side a deserved lead, and John McGinn scored twice in the second half, either side of a Morgan Gibbs-White goal for the visitors.

Villa’s 11-game winning streak in all competitions was brought to a shuddering halt with a 4-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, raising doubts about their ability to maintain a title charge.

But their impressive record at Villa Park remains intact – they have now won 11 straight matches there since a 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in August.

Villa boss Emery told Sky Sports that his players and coaching staff had held a meeting after their chastening loss to Arsenal.

“I am so happy,” he said. “We had to recover our energy and our confidence. Here, at Villa Park, the energy we create was really important.

“Forest are competitive. After the Arsenal match, we met the players and staff: how we are doing this season, how we are feeling, how we needed to keep the same consistency as before, how we needed to be together and strong.”

Villa started brightly on a bitingly cold day in Birmingham, but struggled to make their dominance count in a tepid first half.

But the in-form Watkins broke the deadlock in the closing moments of a half in which they enjoyed nearly 80 percent possession.

The England international received the ball outside the area from Morgan Rogers and slammed home for his fourth goal in three games.

McGinn doubled Villa’s lead in the 49th minute, side-footing home from a Matty Cash cross.

Villa appeared to be cruising, but Forest were back in the game in the 61st minute courtesy of a fine finish from Gibbs-White, who chipped past the diving Emi Martinez.

The home side were gifted a third goal in the 73rd minute when Forest goalkeeper John Victor inexplicably vacated his goalmouth to try to reach a long ball from Youri Tielemans, even though there were defenders nearby.

Scotland midfielder McGinn collected the ball and remained cool, sidestepping Victor and stroking the ball into the empty net with his left foot from well outside the area.

The win took Villa to 42 points, one ahead of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who host managerless Chelsea on Sunday.

Forest, who have now suffered four straight league defeats, remain one place above the relegation zone, four points clear of West Ham, who were thumped 3-0 at bottom-of-the-table Wolves.

“The first half was embarrassing, and I have to apologise to the fans – this is not what we want to show,” beleaguered Hammers’ manager Nuno Espirito Santo said after.

Elsewhere, second-bottom Burnley lost 2-0 at Brighton and Hove Albion.

On the opening weekend of 2025, Forest beat Wolves 3-0 to consolidate their position in the Premier League’s top three.

That was a sixth straight win, something the club had not achieved in the top flight in a single season since 1966-67, and they sat five points ahead of Newcastle in fifth.

Now, it is four straight defeats for the first time since November-December 2023 – a run which ended with Steve Cooper losing his job at the City Ground.

Dyche is already Forest’s third manager of the season and the SOS went to him in October after Ange Postecoglou’s brief and damaging reign.

The former Everton and Burnley boss started well, but the drop-off in organisation, focus and form – especially of late – has been drastic.

At Villa they were undone by simple errors: a collective switch-off to allow Ollie Watkins to open the scoring was followed by John Victor’s ill-advised foray 40 yards from goal which allowed John McGinn to add a killer third goal.

“You can’t give basic errors away to teams like this in the Premier League,” Dyche told BBC Match of the Day.

“The mentality is there, but you can’t keep giving yourself a mountain to climb. Players were switching off to the basics. We have worked on it and shown them, but this is the job. I never expected it to be easy when I got here.”

Until Watkins struck in first-half stoppage time, Forest’s plan was working, even if it was pragmatic in the extreme. Villa had been restricted to one chance – a golden one – when goalkeeper John denied Watkins early.

But Forest fell apart. McGinn scored the first of his two goals in the 49th minute to give high-flying Villa a handy 2-0 cushion.

Although Morgan Gibbs-White’s goal made it 2-1 and briefly gave Forest hope, there was little to suggest they would mount an improbable comeback.

Gibbs-White told Sky Sports: “I feel like we stuck to the gameplan in the first half. There were lots of positives to take. I know we need points, but we showed a work ethic and desire.

“We always know Villa start with a high press. So the key was to absorb that pressure and silence the fans a bit. We were unfortunate to concede right before half-time.”

Chelsea are investigating after a bottle was thrown towards the Aston Villa bench following their 2-1 Premier League defeat at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

After the full-time whistle, an open plastic bottle was directed at Villa’s celebrating bench, splashing staff and players with a liquid that appeared to be water.

One member of staff pointed towards the area from which the bottle came, which seemed to be a section containing both Chelsea fans and staff.

It remains unclear who was responsible. Chelsea have launched an investigation but have not commented officially at this stage.

It is also unclear whether referee Stuart Attwell and his officials saw the incident or whether it will be included in his report. BBC Sport has contacted the Football Association for comment.

Villa substitute Ollie Watkins scored twice to overturn Joao Pedro’s first-half opener for Chelsea.

Unai Emery’s side have now equalled a club record of 11 consecutive wins in all competitions and sit three points behind league leaders Arsenal in third. Chelsea are fifth before Sunday’s games.

Emery may deflect title talk, but his body of work at Villa and the Midas touch he displays – match-winner Watkins described his manager as a “tactical genius” – means they are now right at the heart of the conversation at the top of the table.

Villa’s acid test may just come in their next game, when they face league leaders Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, 30 December (20:15 GMT) but Emery has made a habit of making life difficult for his former club.

He ticks every box for an elite manager, taking Villa into the Champions League last season, only missing out on this term’s competition on the final day of the last campaign, and now taking them just three points from the top of the table and only a point behind Manchester City.

Another figure of significance is that Villa’s win means they are now 10 points clear of fifth-placed Chelsea, a position they would have accepted with gratitude after failing to win any of their first five league games.

Emery proved his pedigree when he acted to galvanise a stuttering Villa display just before the hour as they trailed to Joao Pedro’s messy 37th-minute goal, the striker touching home Reece James’ corner in a scramble.

With Villa going nowhere but the game still in the balance, Emery sent on Watkins, Amadou Onana and Jadon Sancho for Donyell Malen, John McGinn and Emiliano Buendia.

The impact was stunning, Watkins equalising inside four minutes then powering home a header for the winner.

Emery did what the best managers do – he took the big decisions that turned a game which looked to be getting away from Villa on its head.

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery insists it is still too early to say whether his side is in contention for the Premier League title despite being third in the table after their 2-1 victory against Chelsea.

MATCH REPORT: Chelsea 1-2 Aston Villa

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Born in the Viewpark area of North Lanarkshire, Robertson played for Drumchapel Amateurs and Scotland at youth level before joining Forest in May 1970, making his debut later that year.

Having been on the transfer list before Clough’s arrival in 1975, he became a key player under the iconic manager, appearing in 243 consecutive games between December 1976 and December 1980.

Robertson scored the winner from the penalty spot in the 1978 League Cup final replay win over Liverpool.

He was sold to Derby in 1983 for a constested transfer fee, a move which soured the relationship between Clough and his former assistant, Peter Taylor.

An early injury hampered Robertson’s progress at County and, despite rejoining Forest in 1985, he never again captured the same form and moved on to non-league Corby Town, Stamford and then Grantham Town.

At Forest, he also won the First and Second Division titles, the Uefa Super Cup, two Football League Cups, the 1978 FA Charity Shield and the Anglo-Scottish Cup.

And in 2015, Robertson topped a poll by the Nottingham Post of favourite all-time Forest players.

As O’Neill’s assistant, Robertson helped Wycombe win promotion from the Football Conference and Third Division, and promotion to the top tier with Leicester, as well as the League Cup.

An even more successful spell with Celtic followed.

In Glasgow, they won the Scottish Premier League three times, the Scottish Cup three times, the League Cup once and reached the Uefa Cup final.

Then, in Robertson’s final season as a coach in 2010, Villa finished runners-up in the League Cup final.

The last time Villa lifted silverware – beating Leeds 3-0 in the League Cup – Prodigy’s Firestarter had knocked Take That’s cover of How Deep Is Your Love off the No.1 spot in the charts and Wallace and Gromit’s A Close Shave had just won an Oscar.

David Beckham was yet to make his England debut while Cash, Youri Tielemans, Boubacar Kamara and Emi Buendia were not born.

It has been a long wait, with Villa losing two FA Cup finals and one League Cup final since.

Emery, a Europa League winner with Sevilla and Villarreal in previous roles, stated on his first day in charge the main goal was to win a trophy. Last season’s FA Cup semi-final defeat to eventual winners Crystal Palace still stings.

A Europa Conference League semi-final defeat by Olympiakos 18 months ago and the thrilling Champions League quarter-final exit to Paris St-Germain in April show they are getting closer.

“The semi-final in the Conference League and Champions League quarter-final, they were big nights for us, big moments in which we haven’t delivered,” captain John McGinn told reporters.

“Every time we go into a big game now, we have that determination in the back of our heads to prove this team we have built over the past five or six years is worth more than a quarter-final, worth more than a semi-final.

“The determination, I can feel it this year. I can feel we want to prove a point. I think until we do that, there will always be questions asked. As captain, you feel that probably twice as much, but when that day finally comes, you will feel it positively, twice as much.”