Fulham deals a blow to Arsenal, giving Liverpool the opportunity to go top alone
Fulham dealt a strong blow to its neighbor and guest Arsenal by defeating them 2-1, depriving them of returning to the top of the English Premier League, and even removing them to fourth place at the top of the twenty-first round, which witnessed a clear victory for Tottenham over Bournemouth 3-1, while the round concludes today (Monday) with a confrontation. Liverpool aspires to rise to the top alone with Newcastle.
Arsenal headed to Fulham Stadium, hoping for a victory that would guarantee them the lead, albeit temporarily, and it seemed that they were on their way to achieving their goal when they took the lead with an early goal through Bukayo Saka in the fifth minute, but the home side responded strongly and scored twice through the attackers. Mexican Raul Jimenez and Jamaican Bobby Reed, in the 29th and 59th minutes. Arsenal paid the price for its team’s defensive errors, whether with the first goal, which came from a counterattack, then the second, from confusion during a corner kick.
This is the second defeat in a row for Arsenal after losing to its other London neighbor, West Ham United, 2-0 last Thursday, and before that, a 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
Arsenal fell to fourth place with 40 points from 20 matches, a sad end to 2023 for last season’s runner-up. On the other hand, Fulham, ranked 13th, recovered after 3 consecutive defeats without scoring a goal.
In another match, Senegalese Pape Sarr paved the way for Tottenham Hotspur to win 3-1 over Bournemouth before leaving crying due to his injury days before the African Cup of Nations.
Midfielder Sarr scored a goal in the ninth minute, then left in the 32nd minute amidst tears and consolation with the rest of the players due to the injury before the start of Senegal’s journey to defend its title in the African Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire in mid-January (January), and Brazilian Richarlison and South Korean captain Son Heung-min scored. Two more goals for Tottenham, who remained in fifth place with 39 points, but recovered from a tough 4-2 defeat against Brighton last Thursday.
The defeat ended Bournemouth’s wonderful streak without losing in 7 league matches, which included 6 victories, and it ranks 12th with 25 points.
The stage concludes today with Liverpool facing Newcastle. The German coach of Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp, who has scored 42 points so far, will try to confirm its superiority over Newcastle with a sixth victory in a row, to soar alone in the lead, while its rival hopes to achieve its first victory over the red team in more than 8 years.
On the other hand, Dutch coach Eric Ten Hag, coach of Manchester United, called on his team to emerge from the setback it has been suffering from recently, and for its players to find a measure of consistency following their 2-1 loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.
Despite United’s bright start in 2023, which began by winning the League Cup title, followed by qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League this season, the team’s results quickly declined, following its exit.
Early departure from the continental competition, in addition to his farewell to the League Cup and his early departure from the struggle for the English League title.
“One thing is clear, we are not consistent,” Ten Hag said. “We can beat the best teams in the league, but we also lose matches that we should win, and I think the Forest match was one of those matches.”
United overturned a 0-2 deficit against its guest Aston Villa to a thrilling 3-2 victory in the previous stage, before suffering its 14th loss in various competitions this season, which is the largest number of defeats by the end of the year since the 1930-1931 season after suffering its first loss at the stadium. Forest 29 years ago.
Ten Hag added: “We always have to make changes in the team (due to absences). I don’t think I talk much about the players we don’t have. “Every time I say it doesn’t matter who plays, but we have to win.” He explained: “The system does not exist if we have to make adjustments to the formation in every match. There is an example, when (Rasmus) Hoylund is sick, we have to adjust our attacking line, which caused us to lack the element of speed in the first half in particular.”
United returned to reality with defeat against Forest, after their exciting victory over Aston Villa 4 days ago.
Manchester United’s level continued to fluctuate this season, after the team lost its ninth league match out of 20 matches it played, remaining in seventh place in the standings, 11 points behind the leaders.
Jamie Redknapp, a commentator for the British Sky Sports channel, said: “Manchester United’s level is very unstable. Watching them is horrific. They have no real hunger or desire, and they seem to be playing under duress. There is not enough ambition or desire.” Former United defender Gary Neville agreed, saying: “There is no pattern to the game, I find it difficult to see what they are trying to do.”
Brazilian Richarlison, the Tottenham star, celebrates scoring against Bournemouth (Reuters) cut out
United achieved bad numbers, losing 9 times in the first 20 league matches in one season for the first time since 1989-1990, which is the same number of defeats they suffered throughout last season in Ten Hag’s first season, who said:
“We performed higher than expected last year, and this year we have performed less than expected so far. We must raise the level and advance. I must lead this process.”
United, which exited the Champions League and League Cup, collected 31 points, 9 points ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal, which has a postponed match remaining. United occupies third place on the list of teams with the lowest scoring behind Burnley and Sheffield United. Regarding this, Ten Hag said: “The ranking does not lie, but you saw that we competed against Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa.”
The loss at Forest Stadium kept the pressure on Ten Hag after the “Ineos” group, owned by Jim Ratcliffe, acquired a quarter of United’s shares and supervision of the football file.
Dave Brailsford, Ineos’ sporting director, who is now in charge at United, watched the team’s match at Forest Stadium, and Ten Hag commented: “He will certainly see that we have our problems, and that we want to build on (the win over Aston Villa), but again we had to… The main striker (Hoylund) was replaced due to illness.
In addition, Crystal Palace coach Roy Hodgson expressed his anger at the questions asked by journalists about his future with the team, describing them as “disrespectful.”
The veteran coach’s team ended a series of 8 matches without a victory when it won 3-1 at home against Brentford on Saturday, after Hodgson admitted that Palace was going through a “difficult period” during which it achieved only one win in the last 12 league matches.
Hodgson’s future became questionable after reports spoke about his potential successor in the position, including Steve Cooper, who was recently sacked as coach of Nottingham Forest, and he responded angrily when asked in the press conference if he was thinking about the speculation related to his dismissal: “No, I am thinking about the match.” And what we need to do. It’s useless, it can’t be affected by outside noise. If the hype is not directed at me, it will be directed at someone else because that is part and parcel of the game. “You don’t go weeks without making noise, so when you’ve been in football for as long as I have, you have to be aware of that.” He added: “My position has always been clear: I am employed to do a job, and I will do it to the best of my ability. If some people want me to leave the club, they can tell me, and I will have to do it.”
When Hodgson was asked again about speculation about Cooper, and whether Saturday’s result proved his critics wrong, he responded strongly, saying: “I will tell you what I really think.” I am 76 years old and have been working for 47 years. I have been awarded an OBE for services to football and have an incredible CV. So, my final answer to you is that all of this makes no difference or interest to me at all, and to suggest that is disrespectful, is what I think.”
2024-01-01 13:25:58
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