Manchester United and City suffer losses on day of surprises in the Premier League
By Aimee Lewis, CNN
(CNN) — Manchester United’s terrible start to the season continued Saturday as Erik ten Hag’s team fell to a 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace in the English Premier League.
But there was some solace for melancholy United fans as rival, and defending champion, Manchester City succumbed to a shock 2-1 away loss against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The defeat to London-based Palace was United’s second successive home defeat and fourth in seven league games, leaving Ten Hag’s team 10th in the league on nine points.
It is United’s worst start to a Premier League season after seven games – and the club’s worst in the top-flight since the 1989-90 season, according to Reuters.
Joachim Andersen’s 25th-minute strike secured the win for Palace, a team which had suffered a 3-0 loss to United earlier in the week in the League Cup, though Palace’s line-up was much changed Saturday.
The Londoners were underdogs at Old Trafford going into the match, but the fact that United’s loss was unsurprising says much about the team’s sorry start to the season.
Though United enjoyed a relatively successful campaign last season, finishing third in the league and winning the League Cup, there has already been talk of the club being in crisis after this season’s start. This defeat will not have done much to raise spirits.
Unusually, the blue half of the city also experienced defeat, and this one was certainly a shock.
City had won every league game this season and was expected to beat a Wolves team which had won just once in the league.
But Pep Guardiola not only suffered a first league loss of the campaign but the second of the week, following the League Cup defeat to Newcastle on Wednesday.
“Congratulations Wolves, they deserved it,” said Guardiola, per the BBC. “We had chances and struggled to deal with transitions and they played very well.
“We were there and settled well and the question is when the opponent is faster and quicker, we have to accept it.”
Watching from the stands as he served a one-match touchline band, Guardiola saw a Rúben Dias own goal give Wolves a 13th minute lead. Julian Álvarez’s free-kick levelled the match after the break before Hwang Hee-chan secured an unlikely win at Molineux.
The-CNN-Wire
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