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Liverpool 100% start over as Man Utd woes continue
Steve Douglas • September 28th, 2025 10:03 am
Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes misses a penalty in their Premier League loss at Brentford | Photo: AP
Liverpool's perfect start to their Premier League title defence is over after a late 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace while Bruno Fernandes failed to score a penalty for the second time this season in Manchester United's latest lacklustre loss.
Eddie Nketiah lashed home the winner for Palace in the seventh minute of stoppage time on Saturday (Sunday NZ Time), just when it seemed Federico Chiesa's 87th-minute goal would earn the champions a point with their latest late goal this season.
Liverpool won their first five league games despite not being entirely convincing and Arne Slot's team were undone again by Palace, who beat the Reds in a penalty shootout to win the Community Shield before the English season began.
Crystal Palace's Eddie Nketiah scores his side's winner against Liverpool | Photo: AP
Palace are now Liverpool's closest rivals, moving up to second and just three points adrift after six rounds.
United were beaten 3-1 at Brentford for a third defeat from six matches in the league — but it could have been so different had Fernandes' spot-kick not been saved by Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher in the 76th minute. That would have made it 2-2.
The Portugal midfielder also missed a penalty at Fulham last month.
United fell behind to an early double from Brazilian striker Igor Thiago by the 20th minute before Benjamin Sesko reduced the deficit for United in the 26th with his first goal in English soccer.
Brentford's Igor Thiago celebrates their first goal in the win over Manchester United | Photo: AP
Fernandes then made his penalty blunder after Bryan Mbeumo — the winger signed by United from Brentford — was pulled back in the area.
Mathias Jensen powered in a shot from the edge of the area for Brentford's third goal in stoppage time.
The latest loss for United came after previous league defeats to Arsenal and Manchester City, with a humbling League Cup exit at the hands of fourth-tier Grimsby Town also thrown in so far this season.
United failed to build on a win at Chelsea last week and still haven't recorded back-to-back victories under Amorim since his first match in charge in November last year.
Elsewhere, Ange Postecoglou's difficult start to life as Nottingham Forest got even harder as he suffered a 1-0 defeat to Sunderland in his first home match in charge.
It's now five games without a win - three losses and two draws -- for the Australian as Omar Alderete's first-half goal earned the Black Cats the points at the City Ground.
Manchester City's Erling Haaland has delivered another two-goal performance | Photo: AP
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland continued his prolific start to the season, netting in the 90th minute and again in stoppage time to wrap up a 5-1 thrashing of Burnley. The brace moved the Norway star on to eight goals, four more than anyone else.
Before that, City's goals had come from unusual sources. There was an own-goal in each half by Burnley centre back Maxime Esteve, either side of a rare strike by right back Matheus Nunes.
City have won three of their six games and have now moved five points behind Liverpool.
Chelsea had a man sent off for the second straight league match and it cost the team dearly in a 3-1 loss to Brighton.
Chelsea were leading 1-0 thanks to Enzo Fernandez's first-half header when Trevoh Chalobah was shown a straight red card in the 53rd for denying Brighton a clear goalscoring opportunity.
Brighton dominated after that, with Danny Welbeck equalising in the 77th and both Maxim De Cuyper and Welbeck scoring in stoppage time.
Last weekend, Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez was sent off in the fifth minute of the 2-1 loss at Man United.
Bournemouth earned a 2-2 draw at Leeds thanks to a stoppage-time equaliser from Eli Junior Kroupi.
