Arsenal and Liverpool chose the wrong time to chose the wrong time to switch off, as both sides lost their respective games in the Premier League on Sunday. With Manchester City’s 4-1 thrashing of Luton Town a day earlier, both teams knew nothing but a win on Sunday would keep Pep Guardiola’s men at the summit of the league with six games left.
Arsenal suffered their first Premier League defeat since their 2-1 loss to Fulham on New Year’s Eve against Fulham by dropping to Aston Villa in a 2-0 loss at Emirates Stadium. Aston Villa, led by former Gunners boss Unai Emery, survived a tight first half but showed intent after hitting the woodwork before and after the halftime break.
Goals from Leon Baily in the 84th minute and Ollie Watkins three minutes later condemned Arsenal to their first Premier League loss this year and leaves Manchester City on the top of the Premier League.
The Citizens now lead both Arsenal and Liverpool with two points after Liverpool ran out of luck at home to Crystal Palace. The Reds completed an unfortunate week with a 1-0 loss to Crystal Palace just hours before Arsenal played.
Liverpool had dropped points in a 2-2 draw against Manchester United and lost to Atalanta 3-0 at Anfield in the Europa League on Thursday before Sunday’s fixture.
Unfortunately for Jurgen Klopp’s side, a flurry of missed chances and Eberechi Eze’s first-half goal was enough to deliver the blow.
All three sides will turn their attention to Europe, with Arsenal and Manchester City facing Bayern Munich in Germany and Real Madrid in England, respectively, while Liverpool travels to Bergamo to face Atalanta with a 3-0 deficit.
In his post-match conference, Liverpool’s manager couldn’t describe his feelings about the turn of events.
“This one feels really, really rubbish. I need time to process that. I am standing here and to talk about this game is really tricky. The reaction was we lost conviction from the last game. We tried to get rid of this but that worked out as much as we wanted.” Klopp admitted.
Daniel Ademiju Idowu
