Premier League on : Gunners win derby but betting says Spurs will have last laugh

It was all about the main course in the Premier League with the north London derby serving up a pulsating six-goal epic in between low-scoring games at Stamford Bridge and Anfield. Joe Dyer has the betting news.

Three into two doesn't go in top four battle

Derby day ended with wins for the three pre-match favourites - Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool - but there was a huge contrast to the three matches.

Chelsea eased past Fulham, Arsenal and Spurs shared six goals with the Gunners coming out on top, and Liverpool scored in the final minute via a bizarre Jordan Pickford howler.

At the top of the table, the Premier League betting is split into two groups - a winner market dominated by 1.27 favourites Manchester City, with Liverpool judged to be their only realistic challengers at 6.00.

There's a more interesting story in the top four market where it looks like a three-way fight between Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal for the two spots behind City and Liverpool.

While the Gunners enjoyed their derby win and climb above Tottenham on goal difference, the betting says Spurs will outlast them in the season-long race to a top four slot. Mauricio Pochettino's men are 1.66 to end the season in the Champions League spots, with Arsenal 2.22.

Chelsea, who hold a one point lead over the north London pair, are 1.30.

Gunners blast Spurs away

The day's entertainment largely came at The Emirates where Arsenal extended their unbeaten run to 19 games with a memorable derby defeat of Tottenham Hotspur. A pulsating fixture saw both sides hold the lead, six goals scored and a sending off.

An enthralling match eventually ended 4-2 to Arsenal, Spurs falling away having held the halftime lead.

With the game locked at 2-2 and little more than 15 minutes to play a terrible mistake from Juan Foyth, making his north London derby debut, gifted Arsenal possession on the halfway line and Alexandre Lacazette tucked the chance away. Just four minutes later another derby debutant, Lucas Torreira, made it 4-2, to reward in-play backers of Arsenal at 8.40and that six-goal scoreline at 80.00.

After that, Spurs lost their heads and when Jan Vertonghen got his second yellow for a foul on Lacazette there were few raised eyebrows.

A breathless first-half saw Arsenal swarm all over Spurs in the opening 15 minutes and it was no surprise when the home side took the lead, although few would have predicted a foolish handball by Vertonghen would be the source. Pierre Emerick Aubameyang rolled the spot kick past Hugo Lloris and the home fans were crowing.

But having survived the initial onslaught, Spurs began to find space and time and a Christian Eriksen delivery found Eric Dier's head, the England midfielder beating Bernd Leno. And four minutes later Harry Kane was on the scoresheet, smashing a low penalty past Leno after Son Heung-Min was adjudged to have been brought down by a Rob Holding slide tackle. The 1-2 halftime scoreline was backed at 90.00 in-play on the Betfair Exchange.

However, that was as good as it got for Spurs, who were backed at a low of 1.58 to win the game when holding the lead.

It didn't take Arsenal long to level matters after the break and it was Aubameyang again, curling the ball past Lloris with a one-touch shot from the edge of the box to go into double figures for league goals this season. The Gabon striker is 4.90 for Golden Boot honours, a market where Kane remains favourite.

The game was evenly poised at that point with the home side in the ascendant but Foyth's awful mistake gave Unai Emery's side a golden chance they did not pass up. Those late goals took Arsenal clear of Spurs and the Spurs/Arsenal halftime/fulltime result was backed in-play at 190.00, and recommended pre-match at 25.00 by Betting.Betfair's Michael Cox on this site. Over 5.5 goals was backed at 12.00.

The pair meet again on Wednesday December 19 in a League Cup quarter-final. What a prospect.

Blues back to winning ways

The odds told us that Fulham were facing the day's toughest task and in keeping with a largely disappointing season the Cottagers made it extremely hard for themselves by conceding just a few minutes after kick-off. Chelsea, who ran out 2-0 winners, never got above 1.24 in the match odds.

In truth this was a lukewarm derby, perfect for the home side who were allowed to ease back into league football after last weekend's debacle at Wembley. Although not at their best, the Blues were generally untroubled by Claudio Ranieri's side and a late goal from substitute Ruben Loftus-Cheek settled matters.

Howler lets Liverpool in at the death

Liverpool went into the Merseyside derby at around 1.50 for the win but found their cross-city neighbours tough to break down. They eventually broke through in bizarre circumstances, Jordan Pickford touching the ball back from a hopeful lob onto the crossbar and into the path of Divock Origi in the 95th minute. The draw had been backed at 1.04while Liverpool were backed in-play for the win at 28.00.

Origi, a forgotten man at Anfield, was backed at 55.00 to open the scoring.