Halloween Horror for Manchester: City Beaten by Brighton, United Lose Again at Chelsea

A dark day for Manchester

Manchester United’s nightmare winless run reached nine games as they slid to a 2-0 loss at Chelsea, and Manchester City also suffered a harrowing Halloween as the Premier League leaders went down 1-0 at home to Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday Reuters. Two of England’s biggest clubs, beaten on the same afternoon, and a title race suddenly wide open.

City’s defeat was their second in a row in the league, after their perfect start was ended last week by Aston Villa Reuters. Arsenal, who have 21 points from eight games against City’s 21 from nine, will replace the leaders if they avoid defeat at Liverpool on Sunday, while Brighton moved to 19 points in third.

Brighton end 17 games of hurt at the Etihad

Third-placed Brighton avenged their midweek League Cup loss to City thanks to Yasin Ayari’s early goal Reuters. Ayari slotted Brighton into an 11th-minute lead, and Fabian Hurzeler’s side held on for their first away win against City at the 18th attempt Malay Mail.

City had won their opening seven league games in what looked like a flawless start to life after Pep Guardiola, but back-to-back defeats have closed the gap at the top and given Brighton genuine belief they can challenge for the title Malay Mail. Brighton had felt aggrieved after twice leading at the Etihad in the cup tie on Wednesday before losing on penalties; this time, one goal was enough.

Chelsea punish wasteful United

At Stamford Bridge, United were the better team before half-time but paid heavily for not taking their chances, as a solo effort by Morgan Rogers and a Cole Palmer penalty after the break heaped more pressure on manager Michael Carrick Reuters. Rogers was allowed to run straight through the heart of the United defence to open the scoring Malay Mail.

A horror start to the second half for Carrick’s side was compounded by a red card for defender Lisandro Martinez in conceding the penalty that Palmer tucked away in the 64th minute Reuters. Martinez picked up two quick yellow cards, the second of which also conceded the spot-kick, and Palmer converted to lift Chelsea into the top four Malay Mail. United’s nine-game winless run is their longest without victory for 38 years.

The rest of Saturday

Elsewhere, Tottenham beat ten-man Crystal Palace 2-0, with Jean-Philippe Mateta sent off early for a lunge on Micky van de Ven before Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke scored Malay Mail. Palace remain in the relegation zone, and the defeat keeps the pressure on their manager Pierre Sage.

Aston Villa drew 1-1 with Fulham at Villa Park after a howler by goalkeeper Zion Suzuki cancelled out Villa’s lead, with John McGinn also missing a first-half penalty The Times. Coventry City moved out of the relegation zone with a 3-1 home win over Sunderland, who prop up the table, while Bournemouth beat Leeds United 2-0 to move seventh Reuters. Nottingham Forest lost 2-0 at Brentford and stayed in the bottom three, and Hull City drew 2-2 at home to Ipswich Town.

What it means

United were spared dropping into the relegation zone by Forest’s defeat, but the nine-game winless run and another match in which they were punished for missed chances will only increase the scrutiny on Carrick Reuters. For City, the question is whether two defeats in a week are a blip or the moment the title race truly opened up. Sunday’s answer comes at Anfield, where Arsenal can go top with anything but a defeat. No Sunday result is claimed here: the Liverpool-Arsenal game was still to be played when this report was written.