21 Points Apiece: Arsenal and City Deadlocked After Eight Premier League Rounds

Arsenal and Manchester City are level on 21 points after eight Premier League rounds, a tie created Saturday when Aston Villa beat City 2-1 and Arsenal handled Everton 2-0 in heavy rain at the Emirates. The gap between the sides was three points entering the day.

The shift began at Villa Park in the sixth minute, when John McGinn intercepted a heavy touch from Marc Guehi and set up Nicolas Jackson, who put Villa ahead. Erling Haaland headed in Iliman Ndiaye's free-kick delivery shortly after halftime to level it. Jackson struck again in the 60th minute, finishing Ibrahim Mbaye's cutback under goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Unai Emery's side climbed to sixth on 11 points, with a third straight league win over City and its first home league victory of the season.

Arsenal's opener arrived in the seventh minute at the Emirates. Martin Odegaard's corner reached Jordan Pickford after a near-post flick-on, and the goalkeeper's save left the ball loose for Ezri Konsa to bundle in from a yard out, his first goal for the club. It was Arsenal's first set-piece goal since May, ending a run of 13 games in all competitions without one. "We are champions and to be champions you've got to win games consistently," Konsa said. "This is our home, and we want to win as many games here as possible."

Ben White, playing his 200th game for Arsenal, supplied the cross for the second goal in the 68th minute, and Gabriel headed it in on his 200th Premier League appearance. Everton sit ninth. "It's just the beginning; we're trying to work game by game," Nicolas Jackson told TNT Sports after Villa's win.

Tottenham Hotspur beat fourth-placed Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge, their second league win there in 36 years. Chelsea goalkeeper Mike Penders, making his first league start, punched a corner into his own net in the 77th minute. Cole Palmer received a second yellow card in the 80th minute for a late challenge on Conor Gallagher, and Mathys Tel finished in the 87th. "It's very special, because we came here a lot of times and didn't get a win," Tel said. Spurs rose to 12th. Fulham beat Coventry City 1-0 on Oscar Bobb's 80th-minute curling finish; Fulham are 13th, Coventry 19th.

City are awaiting the outcome of an appeal after an independent commission found they committed 114 breaches of Premier League financial rules. The club has always denied wrongdoing. The next Premier League round follows on the weekend of Oct. 31, when Arsenal host Crystal Palace and City visit Brentford.