Haaland, Chelsea & Man Utd: Football News Roundup

Manchester City has again lost points in the hunt for the Premier League title.

Thanks to Erling Haaland’s 150th goal in City’s light blue shirt, his team was still 1-0 against Brighton & Hove Albion, but for the third time in a row they did not win: 1-1.

The gap to Arsenal is now five points. The leader will play in the top match against Liverpool on Thursday.

The visitors from Brighton dominated in the opening phase against Manchester City, but it was the home club that scored 1-0.

Jérémy Doku dribbled in and went over Diego Gómez’s knee. The foul had initially gone unnoticed by referee Thomas Bramall, but the video footage was clear: penalty.

Haaland effortlessly shot the penalty behind Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen and thus celebrated his 150th goal for Manchester City. The Norwegian goal phenomenon only needed 173 games to achieve this.

It was also the 35,000th goal since the Premier League was founded in 1992.

In almost nine years at the highest level with Norway’s Molde FK, Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City, the still only 25-year-old Haaland has already scored 287 goals. On behalf of Norway he has 48 hits.

However, Haaland certainly did not have an easy time against Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke, who was on his skin the entire match and decided many duels in his favor.

Just before half time, however, Van Hecke was too late to block Nathan Aké’s cross from the back line. The ball fell at the feet of Tijjani Reijnders, but his effort was cleared off the line.

Aké was in the starting line-up for City for only the third time this Premier League season and that had everything to do with the absence of injured central defenders John Stones, Josko Gvardiol and Rúben Dias.

In their place, 20-year-old Max Alleyne – just returned from a loan spell at Watford – made his debut as a center back alongside Uzbekistan’s World Cup player Abdoekodir Choesanov.

City then had to do everything they could to avoid falling behind, although Bernardo Silva still hit the outside of the post. The same thing happened to Mitoma on the other side.

In the last fifteen minutes, born Arnhemmer Ferdi Kadioglu prevented Haaland’s second goal by heading his header away from the line.

Haaland then had two more opportunities, but first came up against Verbruggen and then shot hard into the side net. In injury time, the excellent Van Hecke crowned his match by throwing himself with full dedication in front of the Norwegian’s shot.

Aston Villa, number three in the standings, also did not get further than a draw. Against Crystal Palace it was 0-0.

The evening was even worse for Chelsea. The Blues lost 2-1 when they visited city rivals Fulham. Midway through the first half, Chelsea lost Marc Cucurella, who was sent off. Jorrel Hato was allowed to come in shortly afterwards.

Liam Rosenior, who was appointed this week to replace fired coach Enzo Maresca, was not yet on the bench at Chelsea. He watched the match from the stands.

An interim coach was also on the bench at Manchester United, after the dismissal of Rúben Amorim.

Former player Darren Fletcher took the honors on the bench against relegation candidate Burnley, next to his son Jack and the Dutch Joshua Zirkzee and Tyrell Malacia.

This did not lead to a revival: despite two goals from Slovenian striker Benjamin Sesko, the match ended 2-2.

Sven Botman made his return to Newcastle United in a memorable match against Leeds United.

In the 89th minute, Newcastle United made it 3-3 and in the twelfth minute of injury time, Botman, who came on after the break, saw how Harvey Barnes also scored the 4-3.

Botman, who also missed most of last season with a knee injury, had injured his hamstring against Manchester City on November 22.