Manchester City lost further ground on Premier League leaders Arsenal on Saturday as they were held to a 1-1 draw at West Ham United, which left them nine points behind the leaders with a game in hand.
After Arsenal left it late to beat Everton 2-0, Bernardo Silva put City ahead in the 31st minute with a fortunate chip over goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, before Konstantinos Mavropanos headed home Jarrod Bowen’s corner four minutes later.
City manager Pep Guardiola had claimed the title race could be over if his side dropped points again, and City poured forward with increasing desperation in search of a winner after the break.
Erling Haaland, on a run of four goals in his previous 17 games, drew a fingertip save from Hermansen before he scuffed a shot wide from Antoine Semenyo’s cutback.
Marc Guehi then sliced horribly wide in the fifth minute of added time, as West Ham deservedly clung onto a precious point in their relegation battle.
Manchester City remained second, with 61 points from 30 games, having suffered another blow to their title hopes after a sobering first-leg 3-0 defeat at Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday. West Ham moved out of the relegation zone for the first time since December and up to 17th with 29 points, one ahead of Nottingham Forest, who have a game in hand.
Man City dominated possession in the opening stages but without coming close to creating a chance, a theme throughout the contest.
Haaland spurned the first real opportunity when he completely misjudged a header from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross, but Silva opened the scoring minutes later.
The City captain seemed to be aiming a cross for Haaland, which instead floated over Hermansen and into the side netting.
The hosts equalised shortly afterwards through Mavropanos, who met Bowen’s corner with a towering header after Gianluigi Donnarumma missed his punch, leaving Guardiola – serving a touchline suspension in the stands – with his head in his hands.
Semenyo nearly restored City’s lead on the stroke of half-time, but placed his shot narrowly past the post, with Hermansen beaten.
The visitors made a double change on the hour mark, introducing Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku, and it almost paid off immediately, with Cherki playing Haaland in, who was denied by Hermansen.
Tijjani Reijnders’s late free kick bounced off the crossbar, as City huffed and puffed, but when the final chance fell to Guehi, he could not find the target.–AL-Jazeera
