Premier League
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."
City
badly missed the presence of injured duo Aymeric Laporte and Kevin de Bruyne as
Wolves soaked up plenty of possession from the hosts, but always looked the
more dangerous side on the counter-attack.
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.
"The
first thing you have to do is stop them and we did that because the players
were running like crazy," said a proud Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo.
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 ever 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 on the counter-attack 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," said the Spaniard.
"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.
The
Gunners were lucky to escape as Bournemouth enjoyed by far the better chances
after the break with England striker Callum Wilson somehow failing to find the
net after rounding Bernd Leno.
"We
are very happy with that result. I'm very proud with our work in the
first-half, but we are very critical with ourselves to improve things,"
said Arsenal boss Unai Emery.
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.
Tammy
Abraham and Mason Mount put the Blues in command early on at St. Mary's before
Danny Ings pulled a goal back for Saints.
However,
N'Golo Kante quickly restored Chelsea's two-goal lead and Michy Batshuayi came
off the bench to round off the scoring and the Londoners' third win in eight
days a minute from time.
Abraham
now has eight goals in eight Premier League appearances this season and nine in
all competitions.
"I
trusted him at the start of the season," said Lampard. "He also has
(Olivier) Giroud and Batshuayi there, and he has made the place his own at the
moment. I will keep on him because I want more."
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