LONDON :Manchester City’s calamitous spell continued with a shocking 4-0 rout by Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, while Arsenal returned to winning ways in the Premier League with a confident 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.
Aston Villa’s winless streak continued when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home to lowly Crystal Palace.
James Maddison scored twice while Pedro Porro also netted and Brennan Johnson added a fourth for Spurs deep in added time as the Londoners subjected City to their most lopsided loss at the Etihad Stadium.
The limp display left hundreds of shell-shocked City fans beating a hasty exit, ending the champion’s record run of 52 consecutive home matches unbeaten in all competitions.
City manager Pep Guardiola, who signed a two-year contract extension two days earlier, has now lost five consecutive games across all competitions for the first time in his career, and three in a row in the league in his tenure with City.
The loss left City five points adrift of league leaders Liverpool, with the Reds having a game in hand. Spurs climbed to sixth.
“In this moment we are fragile defensively,” Guardiola said. “In eight years we have never lived this kind of situation. Now we have to live it and break it by winning the next games, especially the next one. Now we see things in one way, maybe in a few weeks we see it differently.”
Goals by Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey and teenager Ethan Nwaneri got Arsenal back on track after four league games without a win in manager Mikel Arteta’s 250th game in charge.
Arsenal stayed in fourth spot, level on 22 points with third-placed Chelsea who began the day’s action with a 2-1 victory away at Leicester City, and one point behind City.
Leaders Liverpool have 28 points ahead of their Sunday clash with bottom club Southampton.
Arsenal began the day level on points with surprise package Forest but outclassed the Midlands club in the London rain.
The returning Saka and captain Martin Odegaard were hugely influential for Arsenal, combining after 15 minutes for Saka to clip a superb left-footed drive high past Forest keeper Matz Sels.
FIRST GOAL
Partey curled in Arsenal’s second after 52 minutes and 17-year-old Nwaneri, on as a substitute, put the icing on the cake with his first Premier League goal late on.
“It’s not a coincidence. The team flows in a different way when (Odegaard) is playing,” Arteta said of his skipper who returned from a long injury lay-off earlier this month.
“When he is on the team you sense something different even if it’s hard to put your finger on it.”
Goals by Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez secured the points for Chelsea as their manager Enzo Maresca returned to haunt his former club. Jordan Ayew’s stoppage-time penalty came too late for the hosts.
Aston Villa have now gone six games without a win in all competitions as their early-season surge has stalled.
They needed a late headed equaliser by Ross Barkley to take a point against a Palace side who twice led.
Ismaila Sarr gave Palace the early lead before Ollie Watkins levelled and the hosts then squandered a chance to go ahead as Youri Tielemans had his penalty saved by Dean Henderson. Justin Devenny restored Palace’s lead almost immediately but the Londoners were unable to secure only their second league win.
Palace remained third from bottom with eight points but Wolverhampton Wanderers climbed out of the relegation zone with a thumping 4-1 victory away at Fulham.
Matheus Cunha scored two superb goals to take his league tally for the season to seven and also set up a third for his side after Fulham went ahead after 20 minutes with an Alex Iwobi curler from the edge of the box.
Wolves’ second league win of the season put them on nine points from 12 games and into 17th place.
Brighton & Hove Albion joined Arsenal and Chelsea on 22 points with a 2-1 victory at Bournemouth thanks to goals by Joao Pedro and Kaoru Mitoma as they maintained their best-ever start to a top-flight season.
The visitors did end with 10 men though after Carlos Baleba was shown a second yellow card on the hour.
Everton had 27 goal attempts at home to 10-man Brentford but could make none of them count as they drew 0-0 – a result that left them in 15th place in the table. Brentford played half the game with 10 men after Christian Norgaard was dismissed for a bad challenge on Everton keeper Jordan Pickford.
