Erling Haaland’s failure from the penalty spot and Bruno Fernandes' latest red card compounded the woes of Manchester City and Manchester United on another tough day for the two Premier League giants.
There were no such problems Thursday for Liverpool, which rallied to a 3-1 win over Leicester in foggy conditions at Anfield and moved seven points clear atop the standings approaching the halfway point of the campaign.
City dropped more points in its improbably poor run of form by drawing 1-1 at home to Everton, with Haaland having a spot kick saved by England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the 53rd minute.
The four-time defending champions have only won one of their last 13 games in all competitions and manager Pep Guardiola acknowledged he needs to spend in the January transfer window to reverse City's slide.
“The transfer window in the winter is not easy, but even the players know that we have to add some new players,” said Guardiola, who has had to cope without a host of key players, including Ballon d'Or winner Rodri, through injury this season.
While City is languishing in seventh place, United is even further adrift in 14th place after a 2-0 loss at lowly Wolverhampton.
United played almost the entire second half with 10 men after Fernandes collected his second yellow card in the 47th minute. It was the United captain's third sending-off of the season, though one was rescinded.
After seeing second-place Chelsea also drop points after conceding in the fifth minute of stoppage time to lose 2-1 at home to Fulham, Liverpool recovered from conceding in the sixth minute against Leicester to extend its lead. Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones and Mohamed Salah scored Liverpool's goals.
Nottingham Forest won 1-0 against Tottenham and is a big surprise in third place.
City secured only its fifth point in the league since the end of October but that will be scant consolation to Guardiola, whose beleaguered team squandered a winning position after going ahead through Bernardo Silva’s deflected shot in the 14th. Iliman Ndiaye equalized in the 36th.
Haaland’s penalty failure means the Norway international has only scored once in his last seven games. He headed in from the rebound after his spot kick, but the goal was ruled out for offside.
Haaland, who last week admitted his form had not been good enough during a run that has seen City’s season unravel, held his head in his hands after his failure to score from the spot. He still has 18 goals in 25 appearances this season, but has not scored in a win for his club since the 1-0 victory against Southampton on Oct. 26.
“We shoot a lot in the 18-yard box, but unfortunately we could not get the results that we wanted,” Guardiola said.
City’s damaging run has seen it slip down the standings in the league and crash out of the English League Cup. Guardiola's team is also in danger of missing out on qualifying in the Champions League — sitting just one point above the cut-off point with two games left.
Wolves' first goal against United came direct from a corner, with Brazil striker Matheus Cunha seeing his kick curl over the head of goalkeeper Andre Onana and into the far corner in the 58th minute.
“I was shooting — we train to shoot,” Cunha said.
Such goals are rare, though United also conceded from a corner in its 4-3 loss to Tottenham in the English League Cup this month. Son Heung-min scored on that occasion.
Wolves added a second through Hwang Hee-chan in the ninth minute of stoppage time and have won two straight games since Vitor Pereira replaced Gary O'Neil as manager. Cunha has 10 goals this season.
Salah moved three goals clear of second-place Haaland in the race for the Golden Boot, his 16th of the campaign completing Liverpool's recovery after Gakpo curled in the equalizer in first-half stoppage time and Jones made it 2-1 in the 49th.
Salah has scored at least one goal in nine of his last 10 league matches, and has 19 goals in all competitions this season.
Liverpool is unbeaten in its last 20 matches in all competitions, the only defeat all season under new manager Arne Slot coming at home to Forest in the league in September.
“This year feels different," Salah said of Liverpool's title chances, “but the most important thing is we need to stay humble.”
Chelsea has dropped points in successive games, after drawing 0-0 at Everton last week.
The Blues gave up a lead earned by Cole Palmer in the 16th as Harry Wilson equalized in the 82nd and Rodrigo Muniz grabbed a late winner for Fulham, which won at Stamford Bridge for the first time in 45 years.
Arsenal can now jump from fourth to second with a win against Ipswich on Friday.
Forest's remarkable season shows little sign of slowing after Anthony Elanga's winner against Tottenham at the City Ground. Forest is a point behind Chelsea.
Aston Villa was already a goal down to Newcastle after Anthony Gordon's strike in the second minute when Jhon Duran was sent off in the 32nd. Alexander Isak and Joelinton added goals for the hosts in a 3-0 win.
West Ham had to cope with first-half injuries to defender Max Kilman and goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, but still won 1-0 at Southampton.
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