Manchester United’s nightmare winless run stretched to nine games after a 2-0 defeat at Chelsea, while Premier League leaders Manchester City endured a harrowing Halloween of their own, losing 1-0 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
United were the brighter side before the interval at Stamford Bridge but were made to pay for their wastefulness, as a solo effort from Morgan Rogers and a Cole Palmer penalty after the break piled further pressure on manager Michael Carrick.
Second-Half Collapse Costs United
A disastrous start to the second half was compounded by a needless red card for defender Lisandro Martinez, who conceded the 63rd-minute penalty that Palmer converted. The visitors were spared dropping into the relegation zone only because Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace both lost — 2-0 at Brentford and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.
Carrick has now overseen United’s longest winless run since 1988, and a fourth successive Premier League defeat leaves the club with just seven points from their opening nine games. Despite the grim statistics, the travelling supporters warmly applauded Carrick after the final whistle.
Bruno Fernandes returned to the starting line-up as captain after being benched for last week’s defeat at Bournemouth following his critical comments about the team, and United looked rejuvenated in a first half they largely controlled. Matters could have been very different had Matheus Cunha’s goal been allowed to stand or a host of chances been taken, including Amad firing over when he looked certain to score.
United’s good work unravelled after the break, however, with Martinez — who had also criticised the club’s hierarchy — most culpable. After Rogers strolled through unopposed to dink in Chelsea’s opener, Martinez received two yellow cards in three minutes, the second for inexplicably pushing his arm into the face of Wesley Fofana at a corner to concede the penalty.
“I think I take away a lot of the positives from the first half,” Carrick said. “But the game unravelled and got away from us. It’s happened too often really, so we’ve got to learn from that and we’ve got to do something about it pretty quickly.”
City’s Perfect Record Slips Away
City had done an impressive job of ignoring the dark clouds hanging over the club after an independent commission found them guilty of 114 of 115 financial charges. But after winning their opening seven Premier League games, Enzo Maresca’s side have hit the buffers, following last week’s loss at Aston Villa with another setback.
They fell behind in the 11th minute when a miscued clearance by Matheus Nunes fell for Yasin Ayari, who converted from close range. City poured on the pressure in search of an equaliser, but Brighton — who had led twice against City in the League Cup in midweek — produced a textbook away display to hold on to the points.
The hosts had 21 goal attempts but failed to score for the first time in 25 Premier League matches. Fabian Hurzeler’s Brighton have now beaten both Arsenal and City this season and, while they have been free-scoring, they showed another side on Saturday.
“There’s an old phrase — defence wins you battles and wins you championships. Of course, we’re not speaking about the championship, but especially today we needed to have this defensive mindset. It’s always a togetherness when you defend like we did,” Hurzeler said.
Title Race Tightens at the Top
Champions Arsenal will replace City at the summit if they avoid defeat at Liverpool on Sunday. City have 21 points from nine games, with Arsenal also on 21 from eight, Brighton on 19 and Chelsea fourth on 16.
Coventry City moved out of the relegation zone as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Taiwo Awoniyi and Jack Rudoni were on target in a 3-1 home win over bottom club Sunderland. Bournemouth beat Leeds United 2-0 to move seventh, with Evanilson scoring for the fourth successive league game, while Forest remain in the bottom three as their poor form under new manager Oliver Glasner continued — a fifth league game without a win.
The battle between two promoted sides ended honours even as Hull City drew 2-2 at home to Ipswich Town. In the late game, Aston Villa drew 1-1 at home with Fulham after keeper Zion Suzuki fumbled a corner into his own net.
Resurgent Tottenham made it three wins on the bounce to move eighth, though they were given a helping hand when Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta was red-carded in the 13th minute for a lunging tackle on Micky van de Ven. Archie Gray headed Spurs in front after 25 minutes, and Jan Paul van Hecke wrapped it up with a header from a prone position after his initial effort struck the bar.
