Man City suffer shock 2-1 loss at Bournemouth in the Premier League

The Cherries had never beaten City in their 21 previous meetings, losing 19 of those matches, yet Andoni Iraola's team sprang a huge upset to derail the champions' push for a fifth successive title. Bournemouth recently damaged Arsenal's title hopes with a 2-0 win at the Vitality Stadium and they inflicted pain on City as well. 

Guardiola had claimed City faced an injury "emergency" after they suffered fitness problems in Wednesday's League Cup defeat at Tottenham. But Manuel Akanji, Kyle Walker and Josko Gvardiol all started against Bournemouth after injury doubts, with Kevin De Bruyne, Savinho and Jeremy Doku fit enough to be named among the substitutes.

Exhausted or not, City were rocked in the ninth minute when Bournemouth winger Antoine Semenyo drilled Milos Kerkez's cross past Ederson from inside the area. Guardiola's men were unable to muster a response to that blow and Evanilson doubled Bournemouth's lead in the 64th minute with a composed finish from Kerkez's cross.

Gvardiol's header reduced the deficit in the 82nd minute, but it was too late to save City from a second defeat in four days Erling Haaland should have snatched a point deep into stoppage time when he hit the post from point-blank range. City fall two points behind Liverpool, who came from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 at Anfield. But a first league defeat since December was not as costly as it could have been as title rivals Arsenal also fell to defeat, 1-0 at Newcastle.

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest are up to third place after beating 10-man West Ham 3-0 to make it three consecutive top-flight victories for the first time since 1999. Chris Wood grabbed his eighth goal in 10 league games as the New Zealand striker headed home after 27 minutes. West Ham had Edson Alvarez sent off in first half stoppage-time for two bookings. Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 65th minute and Ola Aina sealed the points 12 minutes from full-time at the City Ground.

Elsewhere, Jordan Ayew's stoppage-time equaliser denied Ipswich their first top-flight win since 2002 as Leicester rescued a 1-1 draw at Portman Road. Leif Davis's 55th minute volley put Ipswich ahead but the hosts had Kalvin Phillips sent off in the 77th minute. Ayew levelled with seconds left to leave third-bottom Ipswich winless after 10 games. Second-bottom Southampton earned their first league win this season as Adam Armstrong's 85th minute strike sealed a 1-0 success against Everton.

 

November 2, 2024