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Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Chris Wood scores Nottingham Forest’s late goal in their 1-1 draw with Manchester City.
Chris Wood’s maiden goal for Nottingham Forest has earned them a 1-1 draw with Manchester City in the English Premier League on Sunday (NZ time).
The All Whites striker, who joined the club last month on loan from Newcastle United, tapped in a low Morgan Gibbs-White cross in the 84th minute to send the fans at The City Ground in Nottinghamshire into raptures, the hosts then holding on for a meritorious result.
The stalemate saw Forest jump one spot to 13th on the ladder, while for City, it saw a relinquishing of the competition lead they had grabbed midweek in their 3-1 win over Arsenal.
In response to Arsenal’s lunchtime win over Aston Villa, City hoped to return to the top of the table, and went ahead on Bernardo Silva’s first-half goal.
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But missed chances, including two from Erling Haaland, proved costly, and the Gunners are in first place with a two-point lead over City and a game in hand.
Jack Grealish had a shot blocked and Kevin De Bruyne sent two tame efforts wide early on, while City had a better chance in the 33rd minute as Rodri put a free header from De Bruyne’s cross inches wide.
Catherine Ivill/Getty Images
Forest team-mates celebrate Chris Wood’s important first goal for the club.
The chances began to rack up and Silva curled an effort just wide from the edge of the area.
He then gave City the lead in the 41st, when Grealish set up the Portuguese, who unleashed an unstoppable swerving drive from the edge of the area that was too good for Keylor Navas.
City missed a huge chance to make it 2-0 soon after the restart when Phil Foden lost control as he tried to square to Haaland. Moments later, Aymeric Laporte headed straight at Navas.
City kept the pressure on but Haaland missed two sitters.
Navas spilled Foden’s shot from the edge of the area and the Norwegian looked prime to score the rebound, but he hit the crossbar. The striker had another go from the second rebound but was even worse with that attempt, firing over from inside the six-yard box.
Earlier, Arsenal came from behind twice before scoring two goals in injury time for a 4-2 win at Aston Villa that halts a three-game winless streak in the league.
It came thanks to a lucky late bounce.
At 2-2, Jorginho’s shot from outside the area in the third minute of injury time struck the crossbar and bounced in off the head of Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to put Mikel Arteta’s team in front. Gabriel Martinelli added the fourth into an empty net after Martinez went up into the Arsenal box in search of an equaliser.
Jon Super/AP
Arsenal’s William Saliba, left, Jorginho, centre, and Gabriel Martinelli celebrate during their side’s win over Aston Villa.
Newcastle missed a chance to close to within two points of third-placed Manchester United (who have a game in hand) after going down 2-0 at home to Liverpool, who jumped a spot to eighth.
Early goals to Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo had The Reds flying, with their task then made easier with the 22nd-minute red-carding of Nick Pope.
Chelsea’s struggles reached a new low after losing at home against last-placed Southampton 1-0, which should ramp up the pressure even further on manager Graham Potter.
The match also had some worrying scenes as Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta sustained a head injury after taking a kick in the face in the second half. He was carried off on a stretcher wearing a neck brace and breathing from an oxygen mask after a 10-minute stoppage of play.
“Thankfully he’s conscious,” Potter said. “He’s in hospital. He spoke to his wife, I believe. So we’re just obviously monitoring and very concerned for him … it was not a nice thing to see.”
An 88th-minute Manor Solomon goal gave Fulham a 1-0 victory at Brighton, to see them jump their rivals, into sixth place (albeit having played two more games than them), while a stoppage-time equaliser from Vitaly Janelt earned hosts Brentford a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.
It was an important day at the bottom of the standings as the three teams who started the day in the relegation zone all won.
Everton climbed out of the zone thanks to Seamus Coleman’s second-half goal, moving two points above 19th-place Leeds with a 1-0 home win over them.
Bournemouth also moved above West Ham into 17th place after Marcus Tavernier marked his return from injury with the winner away to Wolverhampton.
– Additional reporting Stuff
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