Erling Haaland’s missed penalty and Bruno Fernandes’ recent red card marked another difficult day for Manchester City and Manchester United for the two giants of the Premier League.
City lost more points following a poor performance as they were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Everton on Thursday. Haaland had a spot-kick saved by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the 53rd minute.
The four-time defending champions have won just one of their last 13 games in all competitions and manager Pep Guardiola has admitted they will need to spend money in the January transfer window if they are to reverse City’s slide.
Coach Guardiola, who had to endure difficulties without many key players, including Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, said, “The winter transfer market is not easy, but even the players know that we need to add new players.” Injuries this season.
While City are languishing in seventh, United are further adrift in 14th after losing 2-0 to lower-placed Wolverhampton.
Manchester United played with 10 men throughout the second half after Fernandez received his second yellow card in the 47th minute. It was the United captain’s third red card of the season, although one has been cancelled.
Second-place Chelsea also lost 2-1 at home to Fulham in five minutes of extra time in the second half, giving up a point, and Liverpool later beat Leicester, giving them the opportunity to add up to seven points.
Nottingham Forest rose to third place with a 1-0 win over Tottenham, while Newcastle and West Ham also achieved wins. Bournemouth, ranked 6th, drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace.
City secured a fifth point in the league since the end of October but it will be of little consolation to Guardiola, whose beleaguered side squandered a winning position after saving Bernardo Silva’s deflected shot in the 14th. Iliman Ndiaye equalized in the 36th.
Haaland’s missed penalty means the Norway international has scored just once in his last seven games. After the spot kick, he headed the rebounded ball, but it was ruled offside.
Haaland, who admitted he was not in good enough form in the match that ruined City’s season last week, held his head in his hands after failing to score from the spot. He has 18 goals in 25 appearances this season, but has not won for his side since a 1-0 win over Southampton on October 26.
“We tried a lot of shots inside the 18-yard box, but unfortunately we didn’t get the results we wanted,” Guardiola said.
Due to City’s poor performance, they fell down the league table and were eliminated from the English League Cup. They are also in danger of missing out on the Champions League round of 16 playoffs. With two games remaining, there is only a 1-point difference between the cutoff point and the winning point.
Wolves’ first goal against United came directly from a corner, with Brazilian striker Matheus Cunha seeing his kick deflect over goalkeeper Andre Onana’s head and into the far corner in the 58th minute.
Goals like this are rare, but United also conceded a corner in their 4-3 loss to Tottenham in the English League Cup this month. Son Heung-min scored at that opportunity.
Wolves added 2 points to Hwang Hee-chan in the 9th minute of extra time in the second half and recorded two consecutive wins since using Vito Ferreira instead of Gary O’Neill. Cunha has 10 goals this season.
Chelsea lost points for the second time in as many games as Enzo Maresca’s side were held to a 0-0 draw at Everton last week.
The Blues gave up the lead through Cole Palmer in the 16th after Harry Wilson equalized in the 82nd, and Rodrigo Muniz grabbed Fulham’s late winner to secure their first win at Stamford Bridge in 45 years.
Arsenal can now leapfrog from fourth to second with a win against Ipswich on Friday.
Forest’s stellar season shows little sign of slowing down after Anthony Elanga’s goal against Tottenham at the City Ground. Forest is in third place, one point behind Chelsea.
Villa were already one goal behind Newcastle through Anthony Gordon’s goal two minutes after John Duran was sent off in the 32nd minute. Alexander Isak and Joelinton added the goals for the hosts.
West Ham struggled in the first half due to injuries to defender Max Kilman and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, but won 1-0 against Southampton following Jared Bowen’s goal in the 59th minute.
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James Robson https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
