English Premier League rings in New Year with goal drought as Manchester City lose ground in title race
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Manchester City's Tijjani Reijnders in action with Sunderland's Trai Hume during the 0-0 English Premier League draw at the Stadium of Light on Jan 1.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – The English Premier League’s festive feast turned stale on Jan 1 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 came at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace drew 1-1 with Fulham.
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.
“It was a good game against a really strong opponent, one of the best in Europe,” said manager Regis le Bris.
“The standards in our team are high. They want to get better. If you stay at the same level, the league is going so fast that you’ll be finished. They are still ambitious.”
One boost for City was the sight of Rodri back in action as a substitute for the injured Nico 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 Dec 31 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 Jan 3, while City are at home a day later against Chelsea, who parted ways with coach Enzo Maresca
Liverpool are 12 points behind Arsenal in fourth place as they produced a lacklustre display.
“You would like to start off (2026) with a win,” manager Arne 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.
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 goal-less 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 Fulham’s Tom Cairney.
Jean-Philippe Mateta had headed Palace into the lead but the hosts faded.
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. REUTERS
