EPL Table: 2016 Week 22 Top Scorers After Sunday's Premier League Scores

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

A 0-0 draw with Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium saw Arsenal return to the top of the Premier League on goal difference on Sunday, but the Gunners' failure to claim three points represents a missed opportunity.

Earlier, a goal from the resurgent Wayne Rooney ^[1] was enough to give Manchester United an uninspiring but important 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield.

Here are the latest results, standings and the top scorer's table following Sunday's action:

Sunday's Premier League Results
Home	Score	Away
Liverpool	0-1	Manchester United
Stoke City	0-0	Arsenal

BBC Sport

Latest Standings
POS	CLUB	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
1	Arsenal	22	13	5	4	37	21	16	44
2	Leicester City	22	12	8	2	39	26	13	44
3	Manchester City	22	13	4	5	43	21	22	43
4	Tottenham Hotspur	22	10	9	3	38	18	20	39
5	Manchester United	22	10	7	5	28	20	8	37
6	West Ham United	22	9	8	5	34	26	8	35
7	Stoke City	22	9	6	7	24	22	2	33
8	Crystal Palace	22	9	4	9	23	24	-1	31
9	Liverpool	22	8	7	7	25	28	-3	31
10	Southampton	22	8	6	8	31	24	7	30
11	Everton	22	6	11	5	39	32	7	29
12	Watford	21	8	5	8	25	24	1	29
13	West Bromwich Albion	22	7	6	9	22	30	-8	27
14	Chelsea	22	6	7	9	31	34	-3	25
15	Bournemouth	22	6	6	10	26	37	-11	24
16	Norwich City	22	6	5	11	24	38	-14	23
17	Newcastle United	22	5	6	11	24	39	-15	21
18	Swansea City	21	4	7	10	19	30	-11	19
19	Sunderland	22	5	3	14	27	45	-18	18
20	Aston Villa	22	2	6	14	18	38	-20	12

PremierLeague.com

Top Scorers
Pos	Player	Team	Goals
1	Jamie Vardy	Leicester	15
1	Romelu Lukaku	Everton	15
3	Riyad Mahrez	Leicester	13
3	Odion Ighalo	Watford	13
5	Olivier Giroud	Arsenal	12
6	Harry Kane	Tottenham	12
7	Sergio Aguero	Man. City	10
8	Georginio Wijnaldum	Newcastle	9
9	Jermain Defoe	Sunderland	9
10	Andre Ayew	Swansea	7

BBC Sport

Recap

With the likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez sidelined, Olivier Giroud was left to spearhead Arsenal's attack on Sunday.

The Frenchman has scored nine goals and assisted twice since the start of December but was unable to make the difference against the Potters and add to his impressive haul of 12 Premier League goals.

After a fairly strong start for the hosts, Arsenal crafted the first real chance of the game around 20 minutes in when Joel Campbell picked out Giroud with a lovely pass. But as Stoke's official Twitter feed captured, the striker's curling effort was denied by an excellent save from the on-rushing Jack Butland:

MATCH ACTION | 34- @JackButland_One pulls off a brilliant stop, charging out to deny Olivier Giroud #SCFC 0-0 #AFC pic.twitter.com/AYndegWtPl ^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) January 17, 2016 ^[6]

The 29-year-old had Arsenal's next strong chance immediately after the restart as he rose to meet Aaron Ramsey's corner, but despite directing the powerful header at the bottom corner, Butland once again proved equal to the effort, per Sky Sports:

SAVE! Butland is down to his left to stop Giroud's header! More here: https://t.co/p1gxWDqR8a pic.twitter.com/dgdNBKLhhS ^[7]^[8]
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) January 17, 2016 ^[9]

Giroud was otherwise involved relatively little as clear-cut chances proved few and far between for Arsenal with the team clearly lacking the composure and incisiveness of Ozil and Sanchez. Indeed, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain certainly struggled as a creative replacement for the German:

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's chances created map vs. Stoke. Hasn't flourished in the No.10 role. pic.twitter.com/tBQYOsUxiT ^[10]
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 17, 2016 ^[11]

Though blame for the stalemate should hardly be placed at the often underrated and harshly criticised Giroud's door, he is a player who largely relies on opportunities being presented to him in order to score.

While that's not normally a problem given Arsenal's wealth of creative talent, Sunday demonstrated the way the Gunners seriously struggle to threaten without their key personnel in place.

Jon Super/Associated Press

United similarly struggled to create chances against Liverpool—as has been their problem all season. But they managed to do one better than the Gunners and their opponents by taking one when it came along when Rooney fired home after Marouane Fellaini ^[12]'s header came back off the crossbar.

England's captain has been in particularly poor form this season but has shown sparks of life in recent weeks, per Squawka Football:

Wayne Rooney's last 4 Premier League games by numbers: 9 chances created 4 goals 1 assist 36.4% conversion rate pic.twitter.com/jwJdhxB66w ^[13]
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) January 17, 2016 ^[14]

The Mail on Sunday's Oliver Holt and ESPN's Tommy Smyth came out in defence of the 30-year-old:

That was some strike from Rooney to win game. Calls for him to be dropped, sold and generally ridiculed appear to be diminishing somewhat
— Oliver Holt (@OllieHolt22) January 17, 2016 ^[15]

I guess all the experts were right Rooney is finished ? Many teams would love to have a player finished like Rooney yes it is he can finish
— Tommy Smyth (@TommySmythESPN) January 17, 2016 ^[16]

Though his total of just six Premier League goals puts him well behind the players currently in contention for the Golden Boot, his resurgence in form is excellent news for United.

He's not yet at his imperious best, but if he can continue to lead by example and revitalise the struggling Red Devils he may yet be able to salvage their season as well as his own.