Man City’s Woes Deepens
By Tanko Bauka
Manchester City’s crisis continued as they slumped to yet another damaging defeat to Aston Villa away from home.
The defending Champion, Manchester City going into this match having suffered nine defeats in 12 games in all competitions desperately needed a positive result to revive their downward slide in the league following poor results but Unai Emery boys have a different plan as the stunned their visitors with an early goal in the 16 minutes of the first half through Jhon Duran and in the 65 minutes of the second half, Morgan Rogers compounded the woes of Pep Guardiola with a classic workout goal with Phil Foden goal in the 93 minutes seems a consolation.
Manchester City have now dropped to sixth position and are further nine points behind league leader Liverpool, while Aston Villa have moved above them to fifth place in the league table.
Like Manchester City, their neighbours Manchester United are not fairing any better either under their much talk about the new manager, Ruben Amorim, as he has only managed to beat their rival, Manchester City since he took over from Ruud Van Nistelrooy who was appointed interim manager following the sacking of Erik Ten Hag.
The mediocrity that has been associated with Manchester United was again exposed by AFC Bournemouth, which thumped them by three unreplied goals at Old Trafford, and the players were rightly booed by the fans at the final whistle.
Arsenal FC, on the other hand, posted a five-star performance against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with the goals coming from Gabriel Jesus, who scored a brace, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Declan Rice, with Ismaila Sarr pulling one back for the home team.
Newcastle United showed no mercy as they demolished their host Ipswich Town 4-0, with Alexander Isak scoring a hat trick, while West Ham and Brighton Albion played out a pulsating one-all draw at the Olympic stadium in London.
Nottingham Forest continues their good form as they defeated Brentford 2-0 to move into fourth position in the league table.
Liverpool FC shows no sign of slowing down, especially at this critical period of the league, as they once again displayed an impressive and outstanding performance against Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool FC know very well coming into this match that they can’t afford any slip as Chelsea and Arsenal are closely following behind, and the Arne Slot boys made their intention known by taking the game to their opponents, causing Tottenham Hotspur many problems anytime they are in, transition without slowing down.
Chelsea, however, were held to a goalless draw by Everton.
In the Spanish, LA Liga FC Barcelona have dropped down to the third position as they lost 2-1 to Atletico Madrid after Pedro Gonzalo Lopez and Pablo Martin Paez Gavira combined nicely to put FC Barcelona ahead in the 39 minutes but Atletico Madrid roared back with Rodrigo DE Paul levelling up in the 60 minutes while Alexander Sorloth scored the winner right at the 96 minutes to go above FC Barcelona in the league table.
Real Madrid also responded with a comfortable 4-2 win against Sevilla to climb up to second with an outstanding match against Valencia, which has been scheduled to take place in early 2025.
In the Italian Serie A, Atalanta maintains their charge towards winning the Scudeto as they dispatch Empoli 3-2 to sit atop of the league table going into the new year, Lazio, Juventus and second-place Napoli also recorded a win While the biggest win came from the match between AS Roma and Parma where the resurgent AS Roma put 5 goals passed Parma.
In Germany, Bayern Munich put behind them the painful 2-1 defeat suffered against Mainz 05 last weekend as they hammered RB Leipzig 5-1 with their close rival Bayern Leverkusen defeating SC Freiburg 5-1.
Results across Europe
English Barclay Premier League
Aston Villa 2- Manchester City 1
Brentford 0- Nothingham 2
Ipswich Town 0- Newcastle 4
West Ham 2- Brighton 1
Crystal Palace 1- Arsenal 5
Everton 0- Chelsea 0
Fulham 0- Southampton 0
Leicester 0- Wolves 3
Manchester United 0- AFC Bournemouth 3
Tottenham 3- Liverpool 6
Spanish LA Liga
Girona 3- Real Valladolid 0
Gatafe 0- Mallorca 1
Celta Vigo 2- Real Sociedad 0
Osasuna 1- Athletic Bilbao 2
Barcelona 1- Atlectico Madrid 2
Valencia 2- Deportivo Alaves 2
Real Madrid 4- Sevilla 2
Laganes 2- Villarreal 5
Las Palmas 1- Espanyol 0
Real Betis 1- Real Vallacano 1
Italian Serie A
Hellas Verona 0- AC Milan 1
Torino 0- Bologna 2
Genoa 1- Napoli 2
Lacce 1- Lazio 2
AS Roma 5- Parma 0
Venezia 2- cagliari 1
Atalanta 3- Empoli 1
AC Monza 1- Juventus 2
German Bundesliga
Bayern Munich 5- RB Leipzig 1
Stuttgart 0- FC St Pauli 1
Eintrach Frankfurt 1- Mainz 3
Hoffenheim 2- Monchenglabach 2
Werder Bremen 4- Union Berlin 1
Holstein Kiel 5- FC Augsburg 1
Leverkusen 5- SC Freiburg 1
VFL Bochum 2- Heidenheim 0
Wolfsburg 1- Dortmund 3
