Man Metropolis’s catastrophe run continues with defeat at Aston Villa; Forest beat Brentford

Disaster-hit Manchester Metropolis slumped to an unthinkable ninth defeat in 12 matches at Aston Villa on Saturday as Nottingham Forest stormed Brentford’s fortress to climb to 3rd within the Premier League desk. Alexander Isak scored his first hat-trick within the English prime flight as Newcastle ran riot at Ipswich whereas West Ham and Brighton shared the spoils on the London Stadium.

Metropolis boss Pep Guardiola – within the worst spell of his managerial profession – made a number of modifications following final week’s painful derby defeat to Manchester United however it was to no avail as his injury-hit aspect misplaced 2-1.

Jhon Duran scored his seventh Premier League objective of the season to place Villa forward within the sixteenth minute and Morgan Rogers doubled the benefit for the spectacular dwelling aspect within the sixty fifth minute.

Phil Foden scored his first top-flight objective of the season in stoppage time to tug one again however it proved to be too little too late for the flailing champions, whose spark has vanished.

Metropolis have now misplaced six Premier League video games within the present marketing campaign, twice as many as they suffered throughout the entire of final season, once they have been topped champions for a fourth straight season.

They’re realistically out of the title race already – 9 factors behind leaders Liverpool having performed two video games extra, whereas Villa leapfrogged them into fifth spot.

Guardiola mentioned he trusted his gamers to show issues round regardless of their stunning run of only one win from their previous 12 video games in all competitions.

“It will depend on us,” he instructed the BBC. “The answer is convey the gamers again. Now we have only one central defender match, that’s troublesome.”

“Now we have to suppose constructive and I’ve unbelievable belief within the guys,” he added. “A few of them have unbelievable pleasure and want to do it. Now we have to discover a manner, step-by-step, eventually to discover a manner again.”

🗣️ “With out him we would be even worse!”

Pep Guardiola has defended Erling Haaland after the striker acknowledged he has not been ok not too long ago for Man Metropolis ⚽ pic.twitter.com/Di9NzkBT8g

— Sky Sports activities Premier League (@SkySportsPL) December 21, 2024

Villa boss Unai Emery instructed TNT Sports activities that Villa have been “feeling sturdy”.

“We performed the primary half very nicely,” he mentioned. “Within the second half we saved possession extra and getting within the field to attain the second objective, we imposed and dominated extra.”

Isak hat-trick

Forest gained their third consecutive Premier League match, condemning Brentford to their first dwelling defeat this season.

Coming into the sport, Thomas Frank’s staff boasted the very best dwelling report within the league, with seven wins and a draw from their eight video games on the Gtech Neighborhood Stadium.

However they got here unstuck in opposition to Nuno Espirito Santo’s in-form staff.

Ola Aina slotted dwelling the opener in direction of the tip of the primary half and Anthony Elanga made it 2-0 early within the second interval.

Arsenal will reclaim third spot within the desk in the event that they take at the very least some extent from their match in opposition to Crystal Palace in a while Saturday – a day after Mikel Arteta celebrated his fifth anniversary on the membership.

Newcastle deepened Ipswich’s plight and lifted themselves to seventh within the desk with a 4-0 win at Portman Highway.

Isak volleyed Eddie Howe’s staff forward within the first minute and Jacob Murphy doubled their lead earlier than Isak side-footed in from shut vary simply earlier than the break.

The Sweden worldwide scored his third 9 minutes into the second half, poking the ball dwelling after extra nice work from Murphy.

It was a ninth defeat in 17 video games for Ipswich since they returned to the Premier League they usually stay within the relegation zone, two factors from security.

Mats Wieffer gave Brighton a 51st-minute lead in opposition to West Ham however Mohammed Kudus equalised seven minutes later and the match completed 1-1.

Premier League leaders Liverpool face a difficult journey to Tottenham on Sunday whereas second-placed Chelsea go to Everton amongst 5 matches.