Arsenal missed the chance to heighten the congestion at the top of the Premier League when a 1-1 draw at Norwich City saw them fail to join leaders Manchester City and Leicester City yesterday.

Arsene Wenger’s side had looked on course to move into second place on 29 points, behind City but ahead of Leicester on goal difference, when Mesut Ozil’s 30th-minute goal underlined their early superiority at Carrow Road.

But Lewis Grabban equalised against the run of play just before half-time with the eventual nervy draw for the Gunners leaving them fourth on 27, a point behind Manchester United.

Arsenal’s woes were compounded by an injury to Alexis Sanchez who hobbled off with a hamstring problem.

The Gunners had already lost defender Laurent Koscielny early on but Sanchez will be a huge miss if he is out for any length of time – with Arsene Wenger having admitted the former Barcelona man had felt a “little hamstring alarm” after the midweek win over Dinamo Zagreb.

Norwich battled back from a slow start and deserved a share of the spoils, although Alex Neil will feel his side made enough clear chances to win the game and pull themselves further clear of those scrapping at the foot of the table.

In an increasingly open-looking title race, with none of the fancied sides seeming to possess the quality to take control, Tottenham Hotspur also squandered an opportunity to bolster their challenge with a goalless draw at home to champions Chelsea, who dropped a clearly disgruntled Diego Costa.

Milner spot on

Spurs have 25 points in fifth place but the Juergen Klopp juggernaut chugged on with the German’s first home league win as Liverpool earned a laboured 1-0 victory over Swansea City to go sixth on 23 points with a James Milner penalty.

Milner, who scored from the spot in the midweek Europa League win over Bordeaux, fired home in the 62nd minute to end the wait for an Anfield Premier League victory which stretched back to September 26.

It was certainly not achieved via the "heavy metal" football Klopp has said he favours but sometimes just getting over the line brings its own rewards and occasionally winning ugly is no bad thing – especially when such occurrences have been so rare at home this season.

Victory took the Reds to within four points of a Champions League spot and six behind leaders Manchester City, whom they beat the weekend before last.

They have a favourable run of matches up until the visit of Arsenal in mid-January and if more good news were needed the returns of midfielder Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge after long absences will add more strength-in-depth at a particularly busy time.

Costa tantrum

Jose Mourinho dropped his disgruntled main striker Costa but the champions still proved toothless up front as they ground out an undistinguished goalless draw at White Hart Lane.

The Chelsea manager said before the game that his out-of-sorts Spanish striker was lacking confidence and Costa certainly did not look a happy soul when, late on, he realised he was not going to be brought on as a substitute.

Turning his back on the bench, he tossed his warm-up bib away behind him in disgust. It landed at Mourinho’s feet.

Tottenham enjoyed the lion’s share of possession at White Hart Lane and created the better chances, forcing some decent work in the first half from Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic as they went a 13th straight league game without defeat, their best run since a 14-match streak in 1984-1985.

Meanwhile, West Ham United’s sparkling start to the season continued to fade as Winston Reid’s own goal just after the break earned West Bromwich Albion a 1-1 draw at Upton Park after Mauro Zarate’s brilliant 17th-minute free-kick.

Summaries

Liverpool 1
Milner 62 pen;
Swansea City 0

HT: 0-0. Att: 43,905.

Norwich City 1
Grabban 43;
Arsenal 1
Ozil 30;

HT: 1-1. Att: 27,091.

Tottenham 0
Chelsea 0

Att: 35,639.

West Ham 1
Zarate 17;
West Brom 1
Reid 50og;

HT: 1-0. Att: 34,914.

Standings

Next fixtures

Saturday: 13.45 Stoke vs Man. City. 16.00 Arsenal vs Sunderland; Man. United vs West Ham; Southampton vs Aston Villa; Swansea vs Leicester; Watford vs Norwich; West Bromwich vs Tottenham. 18.30 Chelsea vs Bournemouth.

Sunday: 17.00 Newcastle United vs Liverpool.

Monday: 21.00 Everton vs Crystal Palace.