Manchester United scored two late goals on Sunday to deepen the pain for beleaguered Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola as Chelsea moved just two points behind English Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Elsewhere on a day of high drama in the English top flight, Wolves manager Gary O’Neil and Southampton boss Russell Martin were sacked, paying the price for their teams’ struggles.
In the marquee game of the day at the Etihad, City defender Josko Gvardiol opened the scoring, but Bruno Fernandes leveled from the penalty spot in the 88th minute and Amad Diallo struck two minutes later to seal a 2-1 win.
Photo: Reuters
Defending champions City — who have dominated English soccer over the past decade — now have just one win in 11 games in all competitions, and Guardiola is desperately searching for answers.
“I don’t have a defense, I’m the boss, I’m the manager. I have to find a solution and I don’t find a solution,” Guardiola said.
“This is a big club, when you lose eight out of 11, something wrong is happening. What can I say? The schedule is tough, the injured players? No,” he said. “I’m the boss, I’m the manager and I’m not good enough. It’s as simple as that.”
Photo: Reuters
Guardiola’s men trail leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand, by nine points and sit outside the UEFA Champions League places, in fifth spot.
The win is a huge relief for new United boss Ruben Amorim, who had won just one of his first four Premier League matches.
“I think for the fans it has a deep meaning, especially in this context, in this moment,” the former Sporting Lisbon boss said after his first experience of a Manchester derby.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“We had a difficult moment one week ago against Nottingham [Forest] at home with a storm. It was a really tough moment after the game,” he said. “Today, we are more happy, but it’s three points that we have to continue.”
United finished the day 13th in the Premier League table, after Tottenham hammered bottom club Southampton 5-0.
Enzo Maresca’s high-flying Chelsea beat Brentford 2-1 at Stamford Bridge to close to within two points of long-time leaders Liverpool, who have 36 points.
The home team dominated the first half and got the reward they deserved shortly before the break when Marc Cucurella nodded home Noni Madueke’s cross.
Nicolas Jackson doubled Chelsea’s lead in the 80th minute and they held out for the win despite a late strike from prolific Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo.
It is a fifth straight win for Chelsea, who look increasingly like being Liverpool’s main challengers this season, with Arsenal and City faltering.
But Maresca is still being coy over his side’s title chances.
“It’s not about how many games we win,” he said. “It’s about being realistic. There are things we have to do better. That’s why I said for me we are not ready.”
LA LIGA
AFP, BARCELONA
Spanish La Liga leaders Barcelona stumbled 1-0 at home against Leganes on Sunday as they suffered another blow in the title race.
Atletico Madrid pulled level on points with the Catalans with a 1-0 victory against Getafe earlier on, their 11th straight win across all competitions.
Leganes defender Sergio Gonzalez headed home from a corner kick after four minutes for the visiting minnows and Barcelona missed a host of presentable chances as they failed to mount a comeback.
After a superb start to the season, Barcelona have lost three of their last six league games and won just one of those, seeing their lead whittled away.
Hansi Flick’s side lead third-place Real Madrid by a single point, after the champions drew at Rayo Vallecano on Saturday, having played one extra game than both their closest title rivals.
“It was a messed-up game, it’s impossible to be happy. I think we started the game half asleep,” Pedri told DAZN. “We woke up, we created chances, but we didn’t have the spark we needed to get the goal...”
“We have to be better in front of goal if we want to win points, we’re in a bad run in the league and we have to turn it around,” he said.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe