By Reuters
London: Champions Manchester City surrendered pole position in the Premier League after their first top-flight defeat since December.
Liverpool benefitted from City’s slip to seize first place, while Arsenal’s malaise extended with a surprise loss at Newcastle.
Beaten by Tottenham in the League Cup on Wednesday, downcast City boss Pep Guardiola had struck an ominous tone when he labelled his team’s injury crisis an “emergency” prior to their trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.
Guardiola’s grim mood foreshadowed a stunning result as Bournemouth’s 2-1 victory handed the champions their first league defeat since they lost to Aston Villa in December.
The end of City’s 32-game unbeaten league run came with John Stones and Ruben Dias absent from a makeshift defence that was breached by Bournemouth goal-scorers Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson.
Josko Gvardiol, one of several players to feature despite being an injury doubt, got one back for second-placed City in the closing stages.
But Guardiola will be concerned by a lethargic display that suggested his fatigued team have already hit a wall.
City stars Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku were only fit enough to start on the bench and centre-backs Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake were both less than 100 percent, as their shaky performances proved.
“Manu and Nathan were not in good condition. Until the last moment I didn’t know Nathan could play, he said I want to try,” Guardiola said.
“During the season sometimes, this kind of thing happens more than during other seasons. We have to handle it. People will come back and sooner or later the team will be back.”
Arsenal splutter again
William Saliba insists Arsenal can bounce back from a dismal run that threatens to turn their title challenge to ashes.
The Gunners suffered a costly 1-0 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday to leave them languishing in fifth, seven points adrift of top spot.
Mikel Arteta’s men are without a victory in three league games and have won just three times in their last eight top-flight matches.
Even the return of French centre-back Saliba from suspension could not revitalise Arsenal as they fell to Alexander Isak’s 12th minute goal.
Looking ahead to Arsenal’s trips to Inter Milan in the Champions League and Chelsea in the Premier League, Saliba said: “Next week, we have two big games to come back with the win. I think we will do it if we give everything.
“Inter is a big game. If we win, we have the confidence back and we have to do it. We all want to play big games like these.”
Liverpool show steel
Arne Slot believes Liverpool’s steel will stand them in good stead in the title race after the leaders fought back to beat Brighton 2-1 at Anfield on Saturday.
Slot’s side fell behind to a fine strike from Ferdi Kadioglu, with Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck spurning chances to add to Brighton’s lead.
But Liverpool looked a different side in the second half, with two goals in three minutes from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah proving decisive.
The Reds’ gritty triumph made it eight wins from 10 league games to start the Slot era, but the former Feyenoord boss was most impressed by his players’ mental strength.
After last week’s recovery in the 2-2 draw at Arsenal, they once again dug deep to grind out a valuable result.
“What I do like is last week we were two times one goal behind against Arsenal, 1-0 and 2-1, and two times we were able to fight back,” Slot said.
“In this game we were 1-0 down at half-time – I think we deserved to be – and then to come back so strongly against a quality team, the way that we did gives me a lot of confidence.”
