Man City drops more points after draw with Crystal Palace

Manchester City’s Premier League title defense took another blow after drawing with Crystal Palace 2-2 on Saturday.

Four-time defending champion City ended a seven-game winless run on Wednesday by beating Nottingham Forest, but dropped more points with the draw at Selhurst Park.

It could have been worse for City as Palace led twice.

Pep Guardiola’s team is fourth in the standings and eight points behind leader Liverpool, which has a game in hand after its derby with Everton was postponed because of Storm Darragh.

Nottingham Forest was fifth after stunning Manchester United 3-2 at Old Trafford for the first time in 30 years.

Aston Villa beat last-placed Southampton 1-0, and Brentford won against Newcastle 4-2.

A win would have lifted City to second and cut the gap to Liverpool to six points, but it was behind after four minutes when Daniel Munoz scored for Palace.

Erling Haaland leveled by halftime with a header, but Maxence Lacroix restored Palace’s lead in the 56th.

Rico Lewis equalized again for City in the 68th and was sent off in the 84th for a second yellow card.

“I like everything about my team, when we’re in the situation we’re in,” Guardiola said. “We have a lot of problems within the squad. We fought incredible, we gave everything, we take the point.

“The season started difficult and will all season be difficult. We have to survive this season in every game, try to take points to win games and move forward."

Honeymoon over

Ruben Amorim is getting an idea of just how big a job he has on his hands at Manchester United after a second straight loss.

Goalkeeper Andre Onana's second-half blunder against Forest proved costly. At 1-1, two minutes after the break, Onana misjudged Morgan Gibbs-White's tame shot from outside the box. He dived the wrong way and watched the ball roll in.

For Amorim, who took over last month after leaving Portuguese champion Sporting Lisbon, it was the first home league match he has lost since February 2023.

“This is a long journey ... and we are improving in some aspects,” said Amorim, who tasted his first defeat as the United manager on Wednesday, a 2-0 to Arsenal.

Forest led through Nikola Milenkovic's header in the second minute, and Rasmus Hojlund equalized for United.

After Onana's error, Chris Wood made it 3-1 to Forest. Bruno Fernandes pulled a goal back for the home team.

Villa wins

After an eight-game winless run, Villa has back-to-back victories and is just two points behind City.

Jhon Duran’s goal in the 24th held up for all three points against Southampton at Villa Park and followed Wednesday’s win against Brentford.

Duran has been a super sub for Villa but scored on his first league start this season. He has nine goals in all competitions, five of them as a substitute.

Southampton was bottom of the standings and eight points adrift of safety.

Newcastle routed

Newcastle has gone four games without a win after being routed by Brentford 4-2.

In a thrilling first half at Gtech Community Stadium, Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring for the home team before Alexander Isak equalized for Newcastle.

Yoane Wissa made it 2-1 to Brentford, but Harvey Barnes leveled again.

Nathan Collins put Brentford ahead again 11 minutes into the second half, and Kevin Schade ensured Newcastle was beaten by making it 4-2 in the 90th.

Derby postponed

The Merseyside derby will be rescheduled because of Storm Darragh. A new date has not been determined.

Everton announced the game was off for safety reasons around four hours before kickoff. There were severe wind warnings. Parts of Wales were experiencing wind gusts of more than 145 kph (90 mph).

___

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer