Manchesters fall flat
Manchester City’s Premier League title defence suffered another huge blow in a shock 2-0 defeat to Wolves, while Manchester United endured another miserable day in a 1-0 loss at Newcastle on Sunday.
City now trail runaway leaders Liverpool by eight points after just eight games as Adama Traore punished a sloppy performance by the champions with two goals in the final 10 minutes at the Etihad.
“Today we were not at our level,” admitted City boss Pep Guardiola. “We had problems to make our game. We have faced many teams defending deep and found a solution, but not this time.”
Raul Jimenez failed to make the most of three breakaway chances before the interval, but the Mexican made amends with a great run past the hapless Nicolas Otamendi to set up Traore’s opener.
The same two players then combined in stoppage time as Traore raced through to seal a famous win for Wolves.
City have now dropped more points at home this season than the entirety of the previous Premier League campaign, but Guardiola is not yet giving up the title fight.
“The distance to Liverpool is big, but we must not think about the eight-point gap. We are still in October and there are lots of games and lots of competitions to play.”
While City’s off day came as surprise, United’s defeats are becoming more routine as they dropped to 12th after failing to win on the road for an 11th straight game.
The Red Devils’ lack of a killer instinct in front of goal was again in evidence as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men lacked imagination to open up a defensive-minded Magpies.
But Newcastle hit back with devastating effect 18 minutes from time when 19-year-old Matthew Longstaff sealed a dream Premier League debut by drilling the ball past David de Gea from outside the box.
“We’ve given ourselves a big, big uphill challenge to get among the top four but it’s tight and we need to get a run together,” said Solskjaer with United just two points off the relegation zone and five outside the top four.
However, De Gea was more scathing in his assessment. “We didn’t create any proper chances. We have some big injuries but that’s no excuse. We are Manchester United, we need to keep training hard, fighting and winning games.”
Arsenal were also far from convincing but did enough to edge out Bournemouth 1-0 thanks to David Luiz’s first goal for the club to move into third.
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard was much happier after his side rounded off an excellent week with a 4-1 win at Southampton to remain just one point behind Arsenal in fifth.