Manchester City was beaten to a 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, falling two points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.
It took Arsenal till the very end of the game to defeat Aston Villa 4-2 earlier on Saturday, returning them to the top of the standings and putting pressure on Manchester City to win at Forest.
Four minutes before halftime, Bernardo Silva scored from the edge of the box as City, which had dominated possession, took the lead.
Midway through the second half, the visitors could have extended their lead, but the usually lethal Erling Haaland hit the crossbar from close range before blasting the rebound over the bar.
That error proved crucial when Chris Wood, a January acquisition for Forest, unexpectedly scored at the far post to tie the score six minutes from time and raise the spirits at a soggy City Ground.
After finally coming out in full force in search of a dramatic last-second winner, City was unable to overcome the resistance of the hosts and fell two points behind Arsenal despite having played one more game. Meanwhile, Forest moved up to 13th place.
“It is one of the best games we have played but we dropped two points; we should be more aggressive. There are many games still to play, we know it.
“We had amazing chances but it’s football. We have to score. We did everything. You have to do it. There were too many clear chances to score,” City coach, Pep Guardiola said.
Following the Londoners for the majority of the season, City defeated Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday to reclaim first place.
It was expected that City would defeat Forest, who they had defeated 6-0 in the previous season’s matchup. The only disappointment in an impressive first-half performance was that City was unable to score more than once to make their dominance count.
Liverpool defeated Newcastle United 2-0 at St. James’ Park to halt their undefeated streak.
Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo of Liverpool scored their two goals in the 10th and 17th minutes, respectively, after playing with precision in the first half.
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Up until the final few minutes of the second quarter, when Liverpool should have taken advantage of the Toons’ lack of effort and scored more, Newcastle, despite having 10 men on the field, was the superior team.
After 12 clean sheets in the Premier League for the Toon this season, goalkeeper Nick Pope was given a red card in the first half for a handball outside of his area.
In other games, Bournemouth overcame Wolves 1-0 away, Brentford and Crystal Palace drew 1-1, Everton defeated Leeds United 1-0, Fulham defeated Brighton 1-0, and Chelsea fell to Southampton 0-1 at home.
