Liverpool and Man City lose again to boost Arsenal’s Premier League title pursuit

Liverpool’s Premier League title defense lurched deeper into crisis Saturday — losing 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest. Manchester City’s challenge was also hit by a 2-1 loss at Newcastle.

A sixth defeat of the campaign left last season’s runaway champion Liverpool 11th in the standings and eight points behind leader Arsenal, having played a game more.

Coach Arne Slot accepted it was a “very, very, very bad result” and said he could “never come up with enough excuses” for his team’s alarming run of results.

“That is far from good enough and I’m responsible for that,” he said after goals from Murillo, Nicolo Savona and Morgan Gibbs-White at Anfield consigned Liverpool to a sixth defeat from its last seven games in England’s top flight.

To put that into context, the Merseyside club only lost four times over the entire season last term when winning a record-equaling 20th title.

Arsenal was the big winner on the day, despite not playing, after seeing two of its main rivals drop more points.

City fell to its fourth defeat, with Harvey Barnes scoring twice for Newcastle at St James’ Park.

Chelsea is second and within three points of Arsenal after a 2-0 win at Burnley. Arsenal plays Tottenham on Sunday.

Crystal Palace beat Wolverhampton 2-0 and Fulham won 1-0 at home to Sunderland.

Brighton won 2-1 against Brentford while Bournemouth came back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with West Ham.

Liverpool loses again

It was the second time in successive seasons Forest has won at Anfield and it lifted Sean Dyche’s team out of the relegation zone. It was also back-to-back wins for the first time this term for Forest, which is already on its third coach following the firings of Nuno Espirito Santo and Ange Postecoglou.

How Liverpool could do with a similar winning run after seeing its title defense unravel long before the season has even reached the halfway point.

It has only won once in the league since Sept. 20. and the latest loss could have been even worse, with Forest seeing a first-half strike from Igor Jesus ruled out for handball.

That would have doubled the visitors’ lead after Murillo had opened the scoring with a low effort from inside the box in the 33rd minute. Ultimately it mattered little as Forest pressed home its superiority in the second half through Savona a minute after the restart.

As Liverpool tried to mount a comeback, Gibbs-White put the game beyond doubt in the 78th.

Not even the return of goalkeeper Alisson from injury and a first start in a month for British record signing Alexander Isak could turn Liverpool’s form around.

Isak was substituted after 68 minutes and extended his goalless run to six games since scoring his only goal of the season against second division Southampton in September.

“Everyone is disappointed, like they should be, because losing at home against Nottingham Forest is, in my eyes, very bad,” said Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. “That’s the least I can say about it.”

City slips up

City had the chance to go within a point of Arsenal after a statement win against Liverpool before the international break. But its frailties were exposed by a Newcastle team that was on the back of two straight defeats in the league.

Barnes, along with Nick Woltemade, had squandered a number of chances before he got his first with a low shot from the edge of the area in the 63rd.

Ruben Dias leveled for City five minutes later, but Barnes flicked in the winner in the 70th.

City is third, four points adrift of Arsenal, having played a game more.

“There is a long, long, long way to go,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.

Chelsea closes the gap

Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez scored at Turf Moor as Chelsea moved up to second.

Neto headed Chelsea in front in the 37th minute for his second goal in as many games and his fourth this season.

Fernandez sealed the win in the 88th with a low shot from inside the box.

Burnley’s defeat saw it drop into the relegation zone. West Ham joined Forest in climbing out of the bottom three – but the Londoners squandered two points at Bournemouth.

Leading 2-0 at halftime through goals from Callum Wilson, West Ham couldn’t hold on to what would have been a fourth win of the season.

Marcus Tavernier from the penalty spot and Enes Unal sealed the comeback for Bournemouth.

Flying high

Crystal Palace and Brighton both won to keep them flying high in the standings.

Palace is up to fourth after adding to last-placed Wolves’ woes in new coach Rob Edwards’ first game in charge. Daniel Munoz and Yeremy Pino scored within six minutes of each other in the second half at Molineux to leave Wolves still winless after 12 rounds of the season.

In-form Danny Welbeck scored his seventh goal in eight games as fifth-placed Brighton came back from a goal down to beat Brentford.

Fulham won for only the second time in seven league games with Raul Jimenez scoring in the 84th to beat Sunderland.

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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer