For Villa, the win puts them three points ahead of Tottenham in fourth place, although Spurs have a game in hand.
Arsenal had controlled much of the game without creating many quality chances, and Villa looked threatening when going forward and had hit the woodwork twice, once in each half.
So it wasn’t a surprise when the opener came.
Arsenal’s defense let a cross from Lucas Digne run across the area to Bailey, and the substitute had an easy finish into an empty net.
With Arsenal pouring forward in search of an equalizer, Villa hit them on the counterattack as Youri Tielemans sent Watkins clear through on goal and the striker chipped the ball over Raya with a delicate finish.
It was Arsenal’s first league loss of 2024.
Liverpool 0 Crystal Palace 1
Liverpool’s season is starting to unravel.
A 1-0 loss at home to Crystal Palace damaged Liverpool’s Premier League title challenge today, three days after a 3-0 defeat to Atalanta at Anfield in the first leg of the Europa League quarterfinals.
Eberechi Eze stroked home a finish from Tyrick Mitchell’s cutback in the 14th minute to consign Liverpool to their first loss in the league at Anfield in 28 matches — stretching back to October 2022.
It was the 21st time the Reds have gone behind in 32 league games this season and they couldn’t recover, despite Wataru Endo hitting the crossbar midway through the first half and Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones squandering golden chances in front of the Kop after the break.
In the final minutes, Mohamed Salah was presented with an easy opportunity to score from close range for Liverpool but his prod toward goal was weak and blocked by the outstretched leg of Mitchell, who made a despairing challenge.
Liverpool lost last month to Manchester United in the FA Cup quarterfinals, ending Jurgen Klopp’s team’s unlikely quadruple hopes with the League Cup already secured.
In the past week, Liverpool has drawn at United, this time in the league, and now sustained back-to-back home losses in different competitions.
“Could be,” Klopp said, when asked if the loss to Palace was a hangover from the defeat to Atalanta. “If you look at my teams over the years, I think you could say our pressing is usually good, the counterpress is there. The first half (against Palace), we were open — like how can that happen?”
“It’s only a few days ago that we played a bad game so it might have something to do with that. Actually it was a really good game (Sunday), without scoring. But it’s not that easy unfortunately.”
EPL race to the title - games remaining
Manchester City - 73 points
v Tottenham (a) - 4th
v Brighton (a) - 10th
v Nottm Forest (a) - 17th
v Wolves (h) - 11th
v Fulham (a) - 13th
v West Ham (h) - 7th
Arsenal - 71 points
v Wolves (a) - 11th
v Chelsea (h) - 9th
v Tottenham (a) - 4th
v Bournemouth (h) - 12th
v Manchester Utd (a) - 6th
v Everton (h) - 15th
Liverpool - 71 points
v Fulham (a) - 13th
v Everton (a) - 15th
v West Ham (a) - 7th
v Tottenham (h) - 4th
v Aston Villa (a) - 5th
v Wolves (h) - 11th
EPL ladder
(Team, points)
1. Man City 73
2. Arsenal 71
3. Liverpool 71
4. Aston Villa 63
5. Tottenham 60
6. Newcastle 50
7. Man United 50
8. West Ham 48
9. Chelsea 44
10. Brighton 44
11. Wolves 43
12. Fulham 42
13. Bournemouth 42
14. Crystal Palace 33
15. Brentford 32
16. Everton 27
17. Nottingham Forest 26
18. Luton Town 25
19. Burnley 20
20. Sheffield United 16
