After a recent uplift in their results, the pain returned for Manchester City and Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
City conceded a goal inside two minutes and was overwhelmed in the second half in a 5-1 loss at Arsenal, which trimmed the gap to leader Liverpool to six points.
United lost again at home, 2-0 to Crystal Palace, and now has seven defeats in 13 league games at Old Trafford this season – something not seen since the 1890s.
The chances of City winning a fifth straight Premier League title are surely over – the champions are 15 points behind Liverpool with 14 matches remaining – and they must have felt humiliated by the end of the game at Emirates that again demonstrated the new-found hostility between Arsenal and City.
City arrived having won six of its last eight games in all competitions but all is still not right with Pep Guardiola’s team, which let in a sloppy opener when Manuel Akanji was dispossessed near his own area and Martin Odegaard scored.
Haaland was goaded after that goal by Gabriel in a hangover from the spiky 2-2 draw between the teams in September but responded by equalizing in the 55th. Arsenal went back in front in the 57th through Thomas Partey’s deflected shot and there were further goals from Myles Lewis-Skelly, Kai Havertz and Ethan Nwaneri as City fell apart in a similar fashion to the 4-2 loss at Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League last month.
“How we played in the last 30 minutes is not acceptable. It’s not us,” City defender John Stones said. “I’m angry, upset.”
Arsenal reveled in the win. Lewis-Skelly, an 18-year-old defender, marked his goal by sitting down, crossing his legs and delivering a “Zen” celebration – one often used by Haaland. And when the final whistle sounded, the home team played Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” loudly around the stadium – surely a nod to Haaland telling Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to “stay humble” after the 2-2 draw in September.
“This is a thing that’s been building up over a certain amount of time,” Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said. “With the Etihad at the start of the season and everything that went on there, you do have that fire in your stomach.”
Arsenal was alone in second place, three points above Nottingham Forest and nine above fourth-placed City.
Martinez sustains ‘serious’ injury in United loss
On the day locally born striker Marcus Rashford edged closer to a departure from Old Trafford, Manchester United lacked a cutting edge up front in the loss to Crystal Palace.
And there was more bad news Sunday for United with a tearful Lisandro Martinez carried off on a stretcher with a left knee injury – the latest injury to afflict the Argentina defender.
Jean-Philippe Mateta scored both goals in the second half for Palace to end United’s three-match winning run in all competitions – a streak coming after manager Ruben Amorim had called his team “the worst team, maybe, in the history of Manchester United.”
The Amorim era looks set to be without Rashford, at least until the end of the season, with the forward reportedly undergoing a medical examination at Aston Villa ahead of sealing a loan move with a view to a permanent transfer.
Even with striker Rashford absent, Amorim fielded a team with no out-and-out striker and failed to create many good chances against Palace, which picked off United on the counterattack. Mateta’s goals came in the 64th and 89th minutes.
United has lost seven of its first 13 home games in the Premier League this season and that hasn’t happened since the 1893-94 season, according to the competition’s statistic supplier, Opta. Five of those defeats have come in the last six home matches under Amorim.
“It is difficult to play here because we want to please our fans,” Amorim said. “This season is going to be like that, I said it since the first day.”
Relief for Postecoglou as Tottenham wins
United dropped to 13th in the standings and was just one place and two points ahead of Tottenham, which won 2-0 at Brentford to end a four-match losing run in the league and ease some pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou.
Vitaly Janelt scored an own-goal at a corner to put Tottenham ahead at halftime and Pape Sarr added the second goal in the 87th.
“We needed a big effort again today, a physical effort. We put that in,” said Postecoglou, who rested defender Micky van de Ven after the defender returned from injury in the midweek win over Elfsborg in the Europa League. “Outstanding effort by the players.”
The result was a huge boost for Tottenham ahead of arguably the team’s biggest match of the season, the second leg of the English League Cup semifinals against Liverpool on Thursday. Tottenham leads 1-0 from the first leg.