Defending champions Liverpool suffered a crushing first defeat, 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace, while Manchester City cruised to a 5-1 victory over Burnley. Chelsea and Manchester United both fell on Saturday in the sixth round of the English Premier League.
At Selhurst Park Stadium, after starting the season with five consecutive wins, Liverpool fell to FA Cup winners Palace in a rematch of the Community Shield match in August, when the London team won on penalties.
After falling behind from the first minutes of the first half, Italian substitute Federico Chiesa thought he had saved the day and cemented his place as a fan favorite with the Reds by equalizing in the 87th minute. However, substitute Eddie Nketiah snatched victory for the home side in the seventh minute of added time, giving them their first home victory over Liverpool since November 2014.
Liverpool got off to a poor start, finding themselves trailing in the ninth minute following a corner kick that Swede Alexander Isak misjudged with his head, allowing Senegalese Ismaila Sarr to fire it into the net.
Despite their desperate search for an equalizer, Liverpool's goal nearly conceded on several occasions, including one-on-one situations, but the brilliance of Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker kept them in the game. The post also came close in the final seconds of the first half to prevent a second goal from a shot from the edge of the area by Frenchman Jean-Philippe Mateta (45+6).
The situation remained unchanged in the second half, as Liverpool continued to press and Palace continued to threaten on the counter-attack, but without any change in the score. This prompted Slot to bring on Curtis Jones and then Chiesa, who equalized in the 87th minute after a defensive error. However, Nketiah snatched Palace's third win of the season after a Marc Guehi header (90').
- Struggles, then a big win for City -
At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City showed they had recovered from two major setbacks at the start of the season against Tottenham (0-2) and Brighton (1-2). They achieved their third win in the league and their fifth in eight matches overall, thrashing Burnley 5-1, including a brace from Norwegian Erling Haaland.
Pep Guardiola's team opened the scoring early on with a gift from French defender Maxime Esteve, who accidentally turned the ball into his own net following an attempt by Phil Foden (12). Burnley responded in a similar manner, however, when Jadon Anthony's shot deflected off Portuguese Ruben Dias and deceived Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma (38).
The score remained unchanged until the 61st minute, when Portuguese Matheus Nunes put City back in front with a volley from close range following a header from Haaland. Esteve then dashed his team's hopes by accidentally turning the ball into his own net again following a shot from Norwegian substitute Oscar Popp (65). The Frenchman became the sixth player since the inception of the Premier League in the early 1990s to score two goals against his own team in the same match, according to Opta statistics.
Haaland sealed the result with a brace, bringing his tally to 11 goals in eight games this season in all competitions. The first came in the 90th minute, assisted by Belgian Jeremy Doku, and the second in the third minute of stoppage time, after taking advantage of a misunderstanding between Esteve and his Swedish teammate Hjalmar Ekdal.
- Chelsea and United Fall -
At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea, suffering a numerical disadvantage since the 53rd minute due to the expulsion of Trevoh Chabollah, squandered a lead against visiting Brighton thanks to a goal by Argentine Enzo Fernandez (24). They suffered their third defeat of the season after conceding three goals, two of which came in stoppage time, scored by Danny Welbeck (77 and 90+10) and new signing Belgian Maxime de Kuyper (90+2).
Cameroonian striker Bryan M'Boumou's return to his former club Brentford was not positive, as his new team, Manchester United, lost 3-1.
Despite their recent 2-1 victory over Chelsea, Portuguese coach Ruben Amorim's team suffered their third defeat, remaining in the second half of the table with seven points from six matches.
The pressure on the coach, who arrived from Sporting in November to replace the sacked Dutchman Erik ten Hag, has increased.
After the match, Amorim admitted to T&T Sports that his team "didn't control the ball. We played the football Brentford wanted... The decisive moments were against us." Commenting on the pressure he faced, he said, "It's always like this at this club when you lose because it hurts a lot. We have to think about the next (match)."
After a cross-country pass from Jordan Henderson, Brazilian Thiago received it and ran with it before unleashing a left-footed rocket past Turkish goalkeeper Altay Bayindir, assisting the post (8).
Thiago wasted no time in scoring the double. A pass from German Kevin Schaade on the left flank rebounded off Binder to the 24-year-old, who tapped it into the net (20).
United quickly reduced the deficit. After an aerial duel between Mbomou and Irish goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, Slovenian Benjamin Šiško capitalized on the rebounds and powerfully tapped home, opening his Premier League scoring account (26).
United nearly equalized after being awarded a penalty kick following a foul on Mbomou, but Portuguese Bruno Fernandes wasted it in front of Kelleher (76).
While United were busy trying to equalize, Danish substitute Mathias Jensen launched a counterattack, firing an unstoppable shot from outside the area that exploded into the net for a third goal (90+5).
Leeds United drew 2-2 with Bournemouth after conceding a goal in stoppage time.
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