Premier League
Goal drought hits Premier League on New Year Day
The Premier League’s festive feast turned stale on Thursday as the New Year’s Day programme served up three 0-0 draws, most significantly Manchester City’s stalemate at Sunderland, which left them four points adrift of leaders Arsenal.
Second-placed City would have reduced Arsenal’s advantage to two points, but instead were frustrated as their winning streak in all competitions was halted at eight.
Liverpool’s attack was also found wanting as they drew 0-0 at home to Leeds United, while there were no goals at Brentford as they ground out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
The only goals of the day came at Selhurst Park, where Fulham’s Tom Cairney scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw.
Sunderland have proved stubborn opposition on their return to the Premier League and have now drawn with City, Arsenal and third-placed Aston Villa at their Stadium of Light.
They are only the second promoted team to remain unbeaten in their first 10 home games in a Premier League campaign, after Ipswich Town in 1992-93, and were worth their point.
City did everything in their power to make the breakthrough, but home goalkeeper Robin Roefs pulled off a series of saves, while the closest the visitors came to scoring was Josko Gvardiol’s heade,r which shaved the post in the second half.
“They are so physical. They’re so strong, so it’s not a surprise at that. We take the point,” City boss Pep Guardiola said. “Really pleased with the performances, especially in the second half. There’s still a long way (to go).”
One boost for City was the sight of Rodri back in action as a substitute for the injured Niko Gonzalez having recovered from a hamstring injury that had restricted him to a handful of minutes in the last three months.
Arsenal’s 4-1 thrashing of Villa on Tuesday put them on 45 points at the halfway stage of the season, while Pep Guardiola’s City have 41 after just their second league draw of the season.
Next up for Arsenal is a trip to struggling Bournemouth on Saturday, while City are at home a day later against Chelsea who parted ways with coach Enzo Maresca on Thursday.
Reigning champions Liverpool are 12 points behind Arsenal in fourth place as they produced a lacklustre display.
Their best chance fell to Hugo Ekitike but his miss rather summed up Liverpool’s day, somehow heading an inviting cross by Jeremie Frimpong away from goal when he seemed set to score.
It could have been worse for Arne Slot’s side too with Dominic Calvert-Lewin having an 81st-minute goal disallowed for offside after latching on to a pass by Noah Okafor.
“You would like to start (2026) with a win,” Slot said. “But it was difficult. I don’t think we were able to play many times through their low block.
“Sometimes we didn’t have enough bodies in front of the goal, and in other moments where we did create, or we were close to a goal, we were a bit unfortunate.”
For Leeds, it was another important point in their bid to stay clear of the relegation zone. They are in 16th place with 21 points, seven ahead of third-from-bottom West Ham United.
“It doesn’t come along that often that you get a clean sheet and a point at Anfield,” Leeds boss Daniel Farke said.
“We had to defend and suffer, but we are newly promoted and came to the defending champions.”
Spurs manager Thomas Frank went back to his old club, Brentford, but it was a forgettable affair as Tottenham’s 137-game run in the Premier League without a goalless draw ended.
Their last one was also against Brentford in May 2022.
The draw left Tottenham in 12th place with 26 points while Brentford, who had the better chances, are ninth with 27.
Palace are now winless in six matches in all competitions as they were denied victory by a superb curling shot by Cairney.
Jean-Philippe Mateta had headed Palace into the lead, but the hosts fade,d and Fulham would have snatched all three points had Dean Henderson not made a great save to deny Timothy Castagne and had Joachim Andersen not blazed a shot over.
“When the legs and the mind are not that fresh, it’s a little bit difficult. It was a good point today,” Palace manager Oliver Glasner said. Palace are 10th with Fulham 11th, both on 27 points.
-Reuters
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Manchester United suffered a frustrating end to 2025 as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday, as the Premier League’s bottom side collected their third point of the season.
Ending a run of 11 straight defeats in the league, Wolves did not look like a side facing almost inevitable relegation as they managed to derail a United team seeking to break back into the top four.
Dutch forward Joshua Zirkzee made the most of a rare start by giving United the lead in the 27th minute, fashioning a sliver of space on the edge of the box before scoring with a shot that deflected off Ladislav Krejci.
Benjamin Sesko almost made it two in the 39th minute, but he headed his effort from a corner off the post, summing up a frustrating night for the 22-year-old Slovenian.
Wolves never backed down, and Krejci equalised just before the break, Zirkzee giving him a helping hand by sending a defensive header across the box for the Czech to nod back in at the far post.
The tempo remained high in the second half, with Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa scrambling to prevent a header from teammate Yerson Mosquera from going into the net, while his United counterpart Senne Lammens pulled off a superb double save to deny Krejci and Mosquera.
Patrick Dorgu thought he had snatched a 90th-minute winner for United but the goal was chalked off for offside following a VAR review, leaving United sixth in the standings with 30 points. Wolves are bottom with three points from 19 games.
United coach Ruben Amorim was left frustrated by his side’s inability to put away Wolves, who have failed to win any of their last 23 games in the league.
“Looking at the 90 minutes, we had our chances, but the fluidity offensively wasn’t there. There is a lack of connections at the moment,” he told Sky Sports. “They tried,but we didn’t play well. When you don’t play well with the ball, you struggle without it. We need to recover and go to the next one.”
United fans were left scratching their heads when Zirkzee was replaced by Jack Fletcher at halftime.
“We were struggling with their midfielders, and sometimes you can attack better with less strikers. We played with three strikers and sometimes that’s not the best thing to attack well,” Amorim said.
“This game is over, you cannot change the result of this one, but you can move on and go to the next one.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United’s Patrick Dorgu struck in the first half as Ruben Amorim’s side held on for an ugly 1-0 victory over Newcastle United on Friday in the year’s only Boxing Day fixture to climb to fifth place in the Premier League standings.
The hosts have 29 points after 18 games, with the rest of the week’s games to be played on Saturday and Sunday, while Newcastle are 11th with 23 points.
Dorgu scored his first goal for United with a volley against the run of play in the 24th minute when Diogo Dalot’s long throw was partially cleared. The ball fell to the Dane, who smashed it into the bottom left corner from 15 yards out.
“It was a good hit. I didn’t know I could do that, but I was very happy to score my first goal in this stadium as well. It was amazing,” Dorgu told Sky Sports.
“I just took what (Amorim) told me to work on my confidence and stuff. I think I did well today. I just looked at the ball, saw it drop, and I just hit it.”
Newcastle pushed for an equaliser late on but could not break down a team missing key players, including injured captain Bruno Fernandes, along with Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo, who are playing in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Man United’s Benjamin Sesko hit the crossbar in the second half, and Dalot had a huge chance to double the home side’s lead when Lisandro Martinez picked him out with a free kick. However, Dalot fired his shot over from eight yards out.
The visitors had 16 shots to Man United’s nine and thoroughly dominated the second half, leaving manager Eddie Howe to rue the chances missed in a loss that leaves them with one victory on the road this season.
Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon had a couple of good late chances, but fired his best of them over the bar. Lewis Miley also shot over at the end of regulation time.
“Second half was a lot better than the first, but we didn’t do enough, we have to do more,” Howe said. “It was not through a lack of effort; we were very dominant in that second period, and I thought if we scored, we would go on to win.”
Man United defender Ayden Heaven said his team’s recent run of form shows they “belong in Europe”.
“We want to get back there next season so we can even push for top four, possibly win the league, anything’s possible,” he said. “We want to keep trying.”
The lone game marked the fewest top-flight Boxing Day fixtures in 43 years, in a break from the tradition of a full slate of festive fixtures that fans have long enjoyed.
The Premier League cited mounting scheduling pressures linked to the expansion of European club competitions as the key reason for the change, with a promise that next season would have a full slate of Boxing Day games once again.
-Reuters
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Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah said he had been “thrown under the bus” as he tore into the club over his treatment and signalled a potential exit after watching from the bench as they were held to a 3-3 Premier League draw with Leeds United on Saturday.
In his incendiary post-match comments, the 33-year-old Egyptian lashed out at the club and coach Arne Slot, telling journalists he felt he had been scapegoated for their poor start to the season and suggesting that he may not have long left at Anfield.
“I’m very, very disappointed to be fair. I have done so much for this club, everybody can see that during the years and especially last season,” Salah told reporters in the post-match mixed zone before taking aim at the club’s leadership.
“I don’t know, it seems like the club is throwing me under the bus. That’s how I felt it, how I feel it.
“I think it’s very clear that someone wants me to get all the blame. The club promised me in the summer, a lot of promises and nothing so far.”
The Egyptian, who signed a two-year contract extension in April, has become an iconic figure in an eight-year spell at Liverpool in which he has won two Premier League titles and scored 250 goals in all competitions for the club.
Yet after an indifferent start to the season, he has begun the last three matches on the bench, playing only 45 minutes.
Liverpool visit Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday before hosting Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, two games that may herald the end of Salah’s time on Merseyside.
“I called my mum and dad yesterday, I told them to come to Brighton game, it doesn’t matter if I play or not. I’m going to enjoy it. We’ll see what’s going to happen, but in my head, I’m going to enjoy that game, if I play it or not, if I’m on the bench or not,” Salah, who is going to the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt on December 15, said.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now, so I’m just going to be in Anfield, say goodbye to the fans (before) going to Africa Cup (of Nations), because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I’m there.”
‘WE NEEDED DIFFERENT PLAYERS’
Speaking after the draw, Slot said he had left Salah on the bench because he felt the team needed something different.
“We were 2-0 up, we were 3-2 up. At that moment in time it was more about controlling the game and we didn’t need a goal at that moment in time,” he said.
“Normally when you need a goal, like last week against Sunderland, I brought Mo on. We needed different players like Wataru (Endo) when we needed to bring the win over the line, he (Endo) gave everything.
“We have to accept the situation we are in. The short-term future of Mo is that he is going to the Africa Cup of Nations, but before that we play Inter Milan,” he concluded.
Salah scored 34 goals and had 18 assists in 52 games across all competitions as Liverpool won the Premier League last season, but with his side floundering, he has managed five goals and three assists in 19 games in the current campaign.
The forward indicated that his relationship with Slot had broken down completely.
“I had a good relationship with the manager, and all of a sudden we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, it seems to me, how I see it, someone doesn’t want me in the club,” he said.
Since joining Liverpool from AS Roma in 2017, Salah has become the club’s third-highest scorer behind Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
“I don’t think I’m the problem. I have done so much for this club with the respect I want to get,” he said. “And I don’t have to go every day fighting for my position because I’ve earned it.”
-Reuters
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