EPL: Arsenal beat relegation threatened Hull city 2-0

Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez celebrates after scoring against Hull City during their Premier League match in London on Saturday. Pic/AFP

London: Alexis Sanchez struck twice as Arsenal returned to winning ways with a contentious and hard-fought 2-0 Premier League win over Hull City on Saturday. The Gunners had lost their last two games coming into this contest against the relegation-threatened Tigers and had drifted out of the title race as a result. They were by no means back to their best, but with a Champions League tie at Bayern Munich to come on Wednesday, manager Arsene Wenger will be pleased to have chalked up a timely victory.

Sanchez's disputed goal
Sanchez opened the scoring on 34 minutes with a goal that was allowed to stand despite the ball going in off his right hand. He confirmed the three points with an injury-time penalty - his 17th goal of the campaign - after Sam Clucas had been sent off for clearing Lucas Perez's strike off the line with his arm.

Hull threatened on occasion, but failed to get a positive result to lift them out of the bottom three, while Arsenal stay in the top four and provisionally close to within nine points of leaders Chelsea. Some Arsenal fans decided to stay away in protest at what they deem as another failing Arsenal title bid. But one man taking his seat in the stands at the Emirates Stadium was the under-fire Wenger, who served the last game of his four-match touchline ban.

United beat Watford 2-0
Anthony Martial impressed on his return to Manchester United's starting line-up, scoring one and providing the other as Jose Mourinho's men comfortably overcame Watford. Martial this week took to social media to dismiss the rumours and let his feet do the talking upon with a starting role against Watford, setting up Juan Mata's opener and scoring a smart second to secure a 2-0 win on Saturday.

It was an important victory as the race for the top four heats up and extended United's unbeaten Premier League run to a 16th match - their longest run since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.