Manchester City suffers their third defeat in the Premier League and has bad luck with VAR. Arsenal FC benefits.
Manchester City surprisingly stumbled in the long-distance duel with Arsenal FC for the top spot in the Premier League. Pep Guardiola’s ManCity dropped points after three consecutive wins with the 0:1 (0:1) loss to Aston Villa.
The Gunners simultaneously won the London derby 1:0 (1:0) against Crystal Palace and extended their lead at the top of the table.
Eberechi Eze (39th minute) scored the hard-fought victory for Arsenal FC, who haven’t lost in six league games. The lead over the Citizens grew to six points. The first pursuers of the Londoners (22 points) are somewhat surprisingly AFC Bournemouth (18), who comfortably won 2:0 (2:0) against Nottingham Forest, and AFC Sunderland (17) in third place.
Haaland’s equalizer doesn’t count
While Arsenal struck ice-cold against the FA Cup winner in front of England national coach Thomas Tuchel, the City offense around star striker Erling Haaland lacked penetration for long stretches.
Matty Cash (19th minute) scored the winning goal for Aston Villa in spectacular fashion, while Haaland’s apparent equalizer shortly before the end was disallowed by VAR due to a narrow offside position by provider Omar Marmoush (90th minute).
Already on Saturday, the crisis at champions Liverpool FC had intensified. With a 2:3 (1:2) loss to Brentford FC, the team around the still goalless new signing Florian Wirtz suffered their fourth consecutive league defeat and risks losing touch with the top ranks for the time being. The gap to Arsenal is seven points.