Sports
‘We are not good enough to be consistent’, says Erik Ten hag after Man Utd’s home loss to Bournemouth
MANCHESTER — Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag expressed his “disappointment” following the humiliating loss at home to AFC Bournemouth and admitted his side were “not good enough to be consistent”.
Manchester United’s rollercoaster season continued as they followed their encouraging midweek win over Chelsea with a humiliating 3-0 home defeat to AFC Bournemouth, increasing the pressure on manager Ten Hag.
“As a squad, we are not good enough to be consistent. We have to work as a squad to improve that,” Ten Hag said in the post-match presser. “I’m annoyed, disappointed. I expected something different. The way we started was no good. It was poor.”
Ten Hag also said both he and his players must take responsibility for a damaging loss to Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Saturday.
“We are together and all together, we are disappointed. It should not happen. And, yeah, we have to take the responsibility together,” he added.
The 53-year-old felt was ultimately the cause of Man Utd’s defeat to Bournemouth. “I think we didn’t start well and we already had a warning shot, when they almost had a penalty. That should have woken us up. But then we gave a goal away very easily.
“And then you make them big because they are a transition team and they defended very tough. They go in the duels, they go one-on-one and it was very difficult then. I thought we played too but we didn’t have the brilliance in the box,” he said.
Man Utd have some big matches coming up, including a trip to face Premier League leaders Liverpool next weekend and Ten Hag acknowledged his team need to put things right.
“First, we have to put this in the right place. And of course, we know what is coming up and we have to do things better. And as you said, the difference between the start against Chelsea and today was massive and that shouldn’t happen.”
After Saturday’s result, Bournemouth with fourth win in five matches moved them up to 13th on 19 points, level with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Brentford and Chelsea while Man Utd remained sixth with 27 points.
Premier League: McGinn secures record home victory for Aston Villa
BIRMINGHAM — An early goal from John McGinn earned Aston Villa a club-record 15th home league win in a row, burnishing their title credentials with a 1-0 victory over Arsenal, three days after beating Manchester City by the same score.
Saturday night’s win took Villa up to third, a point off their vanquished opponents, and two points off new league leaders Liverpool. On the other hand, a second defeat of the season for Arsenal leaves them second on 36 points, one above Villa.
Villa started like a train at Villa Park and this time their early pressure paid off as they took the lead in the seventh minute.
Leon Bailey, their hero against City, drove into the box, and cut the ball back to McGinn near the penalty spot. The Scot swivelled before rifling the ball past David Raya.
After Villa’s dream start, Arsenal started to find a way through and came close on a number of occasions in the first half, with four shots on target, Premier League reports.
First Martin Odegaard’s low-driven shot went agonisingly wide. Then, in the 36th minute Gabriel Martinelli ran through on goal and lifted the ball over Emiliano Martinez, but Diego Carlos came to the rescue, chasing back to clear the ball before it went in.
Then Gabriel Jesus played the ball back to Odegaard near the penalty spot, but the captain’s shot was telegraphed and well saved by Martinez.
Arsenal started the second half brightly and almost scored thanks to confusion in the Villa defence. Martinez failed to claim a corner swung in by Bukayo Saka and the fumbled ball hit Ollie Watkins and then the post before Villa cleared.
As Villa players started to tire, Arsenal piled on the pressure. Havertz burst through the left and crossed the ball to Odegaard, but he sidefooted wide.
Amid this pressure, Villa showed an occasional threat on the break and Watkins forced Raya into action in the 68th minute after substitute Moussa Diaby had broken away.
Unai Emery’s second-half substitutions breathed new life into Villa to slow down Arsenal’s advances. In the second minute of stoppage time Arsenal thought they had got their equaliser through Kai Havertz, but the bundled goal was ruled out for handball by the German in the build-up.
Premier League: Late goals from Salah and Elliott send Liverpool on top of the table
LONDON — Mohammad Salah’s 150th Premier League goal and substitute Harvey Elliott’s stoppage-time strike earn Liverpool a 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace, climbing to the top of the table.
It was the fifth time Liverpool had come from behind to win this season, extending their unbeaten record against Palace to 13 Premier League games.
The first half was a cagey affair on Saturday. Liverpool struggled to break down a resolute Palace team, whose 53 passes completed was their joint-lowest such total for an opening half in 20 years, Premier League reports.
The only shot on target came from Palace in the 27th minute. Jordan Ayew drove down the right and whipped in a cross that found Jefferson Lerma at the back post, but the midfielder’s shot was brilliantly saved by Alisson before the ball hit the post and was cleared.
Two minutes later, Palace were awarded a penalty after Wataru Endo was robbed of the ball and Virgil van Dijk brought down Odsonne Edouard who was through on goal. But the spot-kick was overturned after a VAR review found that Hughes had fouled Endo in the build-up.
At half-time both managers made changes as Liverpool replaced Endo with Joe Gomez and Palace replaced Edouard with Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Mateta got straight into the action, winning a penalty after being fouled by Jarell Quansah, who was making only his second start. The decision to award the spot-kick came after a VAR review one minute 45 seconds after the foul. He then stepped up and sent Alisson the wrong way to give Palace the lead on 57 minutes. In the 74th minute, Ayew was sent off for a second yellow after fouling Elliott on the counter-attack.
Liverpool equalised 98 seconds later. Cody Gakpo’s cross led to a scramble in the box and the ball fell kindly to Salah, who scored with a deflected shot. It was his 200th goal in a Liverpool shirt and his 150th in the Premier League, entering him into the top 10 goalscorers list, alongside Michael Owen.
Ten seconds into 10 minutes of added time Elliott gave the Reds the lead. Salah laid off the ball to the substitute who drove forward and released a powerful shot beating substitute ‘keeper Remi Matthews.
Palace applied some late pressure but were unable to stop Liverpool increasing their points won from losing positions to 18, sending them top with 37 points. Palace remain 14th on 16 points.