Arsenal squeeze out three points against spirited Leicester

Mesut Ozil showed his class on Tuesday night

Arsenal enhanced their top-four hopes despite producing a disjointed performance in their 2-1 victory against Leicester City.

Even though they slipped to another defeat and are now five points away from safety, Nigel Pearson's side can take great heart from their spirited second-half display.

The character the Foxes showed when dominating their illustrious opponents for long spells should serve them well in the final 13 games of the season as they attempt to avoid making an immediate return to the Championship.

When Arsenal moved 2-0 ahead just before half time it seemed as though they would go on to clinch a big victory, but the Foxes had other ideas and went close to returning to the East Midlands with a share of the spoils.

It was a strange game as Arsene Wenger's team started the match slowly, Riyad Mahrez whipping in a shot after only three minutes after being set up by Esteban Cambiasso that whistled just wide of David Ospina's goal.

When Arsenal finally started to move through the gears, Alexis Sanchez, on his return from a hamstring injury, danced his way into the penalty area but his effort was blocked before the Chilean headed Mesut Ozil's corner onto the roof of the net.

Ozil, who was outstanding in the first half before drifting out of the game after the break, sent Theo Walcott free but he was unable to beat the veteran Leicester keeper Mark Schwarzer.

The Gunners deservedly took the lead in the 27th minute after enjoying a long spell of pressure. Ozil's corner found its way to Laurent Koscielny at the near post and the central defender beat Wes Morgan before firing past Schwarzer.

Just before the interval the Gunners doubled their advantage when Schwarzer could only parry Ozil's thunderbolt and Walcott was on hand to drill the rebound home from ten yards out.

At the start of the second half Arsenal thought they should have had a penalty when the ball appeared to hit Danny Simpson on the hand but the referee waved away the home team's appeals.

Tomas Rosicky fired a shot narrowly wide of Schwarzer's goal but the home side then began to grow complacent and, in a rare foray forward, Leicester striker Andrej Kramaric fired straight at Ospina.

Arsenal failed to heed the warning though and they allowed the visitors to halve the deficit just past the hour mark when prolific Croatian striker Kramaric drilled a low shot past Ospina after some sloppy defending by the home team had allowed Leicester in.

The visitors sensed a shock equaliser and they dominated the next 20 minutes, although they did not create many clear-cut openings.

The best chance came in the 79th minute when the impressive Mahrez set up Kramaric who failed to lob Ospina, the forward only being able to chip the ball into the hands of the grateful Colombian goalkeeper.

Arsenal managed to weather the storm and finally began to get a stranglehold on the match again in the closing minutes as Leicester tired.

However, they suffered a blow late on when Aaron Ramsey picked up an injury and had to be substituted, just nine minutes after he had replaced Walcott.

Sanchez also appeared to be struggling at times and he had to be substituted in the 68th minute.

Despite the poor display, Arsenal move back up to fourth in the Premier League table and the three points were extremely welcome following the disappointment of Saturday's north London derby defeat to Tottenham.