The 2024-2025 English Premier League (EPL) season has been rocked by a major upset.
In Round 10, the “Big Three” – leaders Manchester City and Arsenal – lost side-by-side. City suffered a shock 2-1 defeat away to Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in Bournemouth, England, on Wednesday (Jan. 3).
It was City’s first loss in the EPL this season after a 7-2 start. It was their second straight loss in the competition, following a 1-0 defeat in the League Cup Round of 16 against Tottenham.
City conceded the opening goal in the ninth minute. Antoine Semenyo opened the scoring, assisted by Milosz Querquez. Bournemouth doubled their lead in the 19th minute when Ivaniusong headed home a cross from the left flank on the counterattack. City pulled a goal back in the 37th minute through Yoshiko Gvardiol’s header, but it was not enough to put the game out of reach. Elling Holland played full-time but was kept quiet.
City’s unbeaten run in the EPL came to an end after 33 games. City’s last defeat was on December 7, 2023, at Aston Villa. Since then, they’ve won 26 and drawn six. In 32 games, they scored 80 goals and conceded just 26. “We want to keep going, but to do it for a few games, a few months, it’s great,” Pep Guardiola said of the unbeaten run.
The loss drops City to second place in the table, two points behind leaders Liverpool
Liverpool came from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 earlier in the day. Arsenal also suffered a loss. The Gunners were brought to their knees by Newcastle United, 0-1. Arsenal dropped to fourth place with 18 points.
In third place is Nottingham Forest, who are making a surprise surge. Nottingham welcomed West Ham to their home turf on Sunday and capitalized on their numerical superiority to win 3-0. 카지노사이트 Chris Wood scored his eighth goal of the season, while Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ola Aina rattled the net as the Magpies cruised to their third straight win. West Ham had Edson Alvarez sent off for two first-half bookings.
With five wins, four draws, and one loss, Nottingham sits in third place with 19 points. Nottingham were labeled as a relegation zone before the lid lifted this season, but have been shaking up the EPL as one of the ‘big four’.
Nottingham’s head coach is Son Heung-min’s former mentor, Nuno Espirito Santo.
Nuno Espirito Santo was recognized for his leadership at Wolverhampton. He took over in May 2017 and led the club to EPL promotion in his first season, finishing seventh in the EPL for the second consecutive season. In the 2019-2020 season, he also led them to the quarterfinals of the Europa League.
In June 2021, he took over as Tottenham manager.
He won his first three league games and was named manager of the month, but that was it. Nuno Santo was sacked after just four months and 10 games in charge following a poor run of form that saw them lose five of their last seven games.
Nuno Santo took charge of Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad in July 2022 and won the title in his first season, but a poor start to the new campaign and a falling out with Karim Benzema led to his sacking in November last year.
He took over at Nottingham in December of last year, finishing 17th in the EPL in his first season, narrowly missing out on promotion to the top flight. The club was also punished with a four-point deduction for breaching the Revenue and Sustainability Regulations (PSR).
This season, the outlook was just as bleak, but the team is a completely different animal and is disrupting the EPL.