Liverpool slump continues, Man City lose, Chelsea move second

LONDON - Liverpool's crumbling defence of their Premier League crown continued with a 3-0 home drubbing at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday that left Arne Slot's misfiring side 11th in the table. 

Goals by Murillo, Nicolo Savona and Morgan Gibbs-White gave Forest back-to-back league wins at Anfield for the first time in 62 years and condemned Liverpool to a sixth league defeat of the season.

Chelsea won 2-0 at Burnley in the early kickoff to move into second place, three points behind leaders Arsenal who host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, while Manchester City missed the chance to close the gap to one point by slumping to a 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United to slip to third.

Crystal Palace moved fourth with a 2-0 win at bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers who are still searching for their first win after 12 games. Brighton & Hove Albion are fifth after coming from a goal down to beat Brentford 2-1 at home.

Sunderland lost for only the third time in the league this season as Raul Jimenez scored late at Craven Cottage to earn Fulham a 1-0 victory.

Bournemouth trailed West Ham United 2-0 with both the London club's goals coming from former Bournemouth player Callum Wilson, but the south coast club hit back to draw 2-2.

Few people could have imagined that Liverpool's decline would be so steep but this is far more than a blip.

Forest went ahead after 33 minutes when defender Murillo fired powerfully past fit-again Liverpool keeper Alisson.

Forest struck again 47 seconds after the break when former Liverpool defender Neco Williams set up Nicola Savona and when Gibbs-White scored Forest's third it sparked an exodus of disgruntled Liverpool fans.

A VERY BAD RESULT, SAYS SLOT

"How bad that is difficult to measure but it was very bad," said Slot. "Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a very, very bad result."

Forest's second successive win lifted Sean Dyche's side out of the bottom three into 16th place.

City had been on a strong run with five wins from their last six league games but missed the chance to exert real pressure on Arsenal who could move seven points clear of Pep Guardiola's side with victory on Sunday.

Harvey Barnes scored both Newcastle goals in the space of seven manic minutes in which Ruben Dias equalised for City.

"We wanted to make a step like we have done in the last two months but this is not an easy place to come after the international break," Guardiola said.

Victory lifted Newcastle to 14th place.

Goals by Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez earned Chelsea the points at Burnley, their third successive league win.

"Tough game for many reasons, but they did not have one chance," Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca said. "I am very happy since I joined this club. When you lose one game it is a crisis, when you lose two it is huge crisis."

Burnley stayed in the relegation zone with 10 points.

Wolves welcomed back former defender Rob Edwards as manager but he was given a bleak reminder of the challenge ahead.

"I knew it would not be a quick fix," Edwards said after second-half goals by Daniel Munoz and Yeremy Pino gave Palace a deserved win which moved them into the top four.

Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen was beaten by one Igor Thiago penalty but saved another deep into second-half stoppage time in his side's narrow 2-1 win over Brentford.

West Ham are now unbeaten in three league games and have climbed out of the relegation zone but were left to rue two dropped points as they allowed Bournemouth back in rain-lashed clash on the south coast.

Wilson scored in the 11th and 35th minutes but Marcus Tavernier halved the deficit from the penalty spot in the 69th minute before Bournemouth substitute Enes Unal secured his side a point. REUTERS