Arsenal do just enough to return to third place
Reading and QPR slip ever closer to relegation as they both lose and teams above them win
Arsenal returned to third place in the Premier League table with a 1-0 win at 10-man Fulham yesterday, while Reading and Queens Park Rangers slipped ever closer to relegation.
Arsenal, who started with England midfielder Jack Wilshere on the bench, were given a huge advantage in the 12th minute at Craven Cottage when Steve Sidwell was shown a straight red card for catching Mikel Arteta on the ankle with his studs.
Sidwell had only just returned from a three-match ban following a red card at home to QPR.
The breakthrough arrived from an unfamiliar source two minutes before half-time.
Theo Walcott's free-kick was headed across goal by Laurent Koscielny and the Frenchman's centre-back partner Per Mertesacker arrived unmarked to head the ball home from close range.
It should have been a straightforward win, but the visitors were unable to kill the game and then lost Giroud to a late red card after he fouled Stanislav Manolev.
Victory lifted Arsenal above Chelsea, but both the Stamford Bridge club and fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur now have two games in hand on Arsene Wenger's side.