Sterling strike sinks Arsenal

Raheem Sterling struck the winning goal as Manchester City reinvigorated their Premier League challenge by coming from behind to defeat title rivals Arsenal 2-1 on Sunday.

Arsenal took an early lead through Theo Walcott, but just as in Tuesday's 2-1 defeat at Everton, they wilted in the second half as Pep Guardiola's City stormed back at the Etihad Stadium.

Leroy Sane equalised two minutes into the second period before Sterling netted a 71st-minute winner, lifting City above Arsenal into second place, seven points adrift of leaders Chelsea.

Arsenal slipped to fourth, below Liverpool on goal difference, and will be cast further adrift of the leading pack if Jurgen Klopp's men win at Everton in Monday's Merseyside derby.

Following recent heavy losses to Chelsea and Leicester City, it gave City a first win over a fellow top-six club since their 2-1 success at Manchester United in early September.

Having gone 14 league games unbeaten, Arsenal have now lost successive matches.

With Chelsea nine points above them, manager Arsene Wenger will once again face questions about his ability to end the club's 12-year league title drought.

City's players walked out wearing shirts bearing the name of team-mate Ilkay Gundogan, who is set to miss the rest of the season after sustaining knee ligament damage in Wednesday's 2-0 win over Watford.

The early evidence suggested their minds were indeed elsewhere as Arsenal took the lead inside five minutes.

An attack prompted by right-back Hector Bellerin culminated in Alexis Sanchez sliding a pass behind Nicolas Otamendi's back to Walcott, who gathered the ball and slipped a low shot past Claudio Bravo.

Guardiola again left close-season signing John Stones on the bench, but even with a four-man defence, his side looked porous.

Sterling, deployed as a lone striker by Guardiola, came close to instantly cancelling out Walcott's goal when, stretching to meet Kevin De Bruyne's cross, he could only head wide from six yards.

City took the lead late in the second half, De Bruyne catapulting 50-yards wide to Sterling, who cut inside Monreal and lashed a left-foot shot into the bottom-right corner.

De Bruyne came close to adding a third when he directed substitute Jesus Navas's cross against the post.