Wolves chew into City’s title hopes

Manchester City’s Premier League title defence suffered another huge blow in a shock 2-0 defeat to Wolves, while Manchester United endured another miserable day in a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle on Sunday.

City now trail runaway leaders Liverpool by eight points after just eight games as Adama Traore punished a sloppy performance by the champions with two goals in the final 10 minutes at the Etihad.

“Today we were not at our level. We had problems to make our game,” City coach Pep Guardiola said.

“We have faced many teams defending deep and found a solution, but not this time.”

City missed the injured Aymeric Laporte and Kevin de Bruyne as Wolves soaked up plenty of possession from the hosts, but always looked the more dangerous side on the counterattack.

While City’s off day came as a surprise, United’s defeats are becoming ever more routine as they dropped to 12th after failing to win on the road for an 11th straight game.

The Red Devils’ lack of a killer instinct in front of goal was again in evidence, with Harry Maguire missing their best chance with a free header from a corner in the first-half.

Without the injured Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial, they lacked imagination to open up a defensive Magpies.

But Newcastle hit back on the counterattack 18 minutes from time when 19-year-old Matthew Longstaff sealed a dream Premier League debut by drilling the ball past David de Gea from outside the box.

Arsenal were also far from convincing but did enough to edge out Bournemouth 1-0 thanks to David Luiz’s first goal for the club to move into third.

Chelsea rounded off a great week with a 4-1 win at Southampton to remain one point behind Arsenal in fifth. –