Arsenal defeated Luton Town 2-0, while Phil Foden scored a hat-trick in Manchester City’s 4-1 victory over Aston Villa as two of the three Premier League title challenges secured victories in their respective matches on Wednesday evening.

In the Premier League, Arsenal welcomed Luton Town to Emirates Stadium, while Manchester City hosted Aston Villa at Etihad. Arsenal started the game well, with Martin Odegaard scoring in the 24th minute before an own goal from Luton Town’s Hashioka, which sealed the game for Mikel Arteta’s men.

Pep Guardiola’s side could not muster a goal against Arsenal in a goalless draw on Sunday, but they got into the lead barely six minutes into the fixture with Rodri sweeping home from a low cross.

Phil Foden scored the first of these three goals on the night just before the halftime break to return the hosts into the lead after Josh Duran’s 20th-minute equalizer. He got the other two goals just in 9 minutes after the hour mark in the game to help Manchester City get back into the title race, with the result meaning that City are level on point with Liverpool with 67 points, but the Gunners move to first position one point ahead of Liverpool.

“We managed to rotate and freshen the team up a bit. Those who came in did really, really well. We scored two very good goals in the second half; credit to Luton. They are a really good side and difficult to play against, but overall, a win and another clean sheet, and in a couple of days, we play again. To have a squad, they have to play. We have to make those decisions. The contribution they make to the team was very good. Now we recover and go again because we have Brighton away.” Arteta said.

Liverpool will move back to first if they can manage to secure a win over Sheffield United on Thursday.

Daniel Ademiju Idowu