Man United loses 3-0 at home to Bournemouth for second straight season as Chelsea held by Everton
By Steve Douglas, The Associated Press on December 22, 2024.
Manchester United's Alejandro Garnacho is dejected after missing an opportunity to score during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Bournemouth at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)Manchester United was beaten 3-0 at home by Bournemouth for the second straight season in the Premier League to continue Ruben Amorim’s turbulent start at Old Trafford, while title-chasing Chelsea was held to a 0-0 draw at Everton on Sunday.
The optimism that might have been generated by a last-gasp 2-1 derby win at Manchester City last weekend has disappeared for United, which lost 4-3 at Tottenham in the English League Cup quarterfinals on Thursday before being handed a defeat to Bournemouth by the same score as 12 months ago.
“We were a bit nervous, I felt it in the stadium,” said Amorim, who has won four and lost four in all competitions since starting his United tenure with a draw at Ipswich on Nov. 24.
Dean Huijsen, Justin Kluivert and Antoine Semenyo scored for the visitors from the south coast as they climbed to fifth place in the standings, dropping Man City – the beleaguered defending champion – to seventh place after 17 games.
United, which left out Marcus Rashford for the third straight match, sits in 13th place and will be in the bottom half of standings at Christmas for the first time since the 1989-90 season.
“We know how big it is at this club,” United defender Lisandro Martinez told the BBC. “The expectation is very high, it’s a process and you can see we are playing so well but we also concede goals and we have to work on that. I know the fans are impatient with us.”
Chelsea could have climbed above Liverpool into first place – for a couple of hours at least – with a win at Everton.
However, a 0-0 draw ended the team’s eight-match winning run in all competitions and meant Liverpool could push four points clear by beating Tottenham later Sunday.
Nicolas Jackson headed against the post for Chelsea in the first half.
Everton also held Arsenal 0-0 last weekend.
“Sometimes you have to play a different game and we are learning to play a different game,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said. “They (Everton) are one of the best teams in Europe in terms of clean sheets.”
Winning start for Pereira
Vitor Pereira got off to a great start as Wolverhampton manager, with his new team beating Leicester 3-0 in his first match in charge.
Pereira took charge on Thursday as the replacement for Gary O’Neil and immediately ended Wolves’ four-game losing run as Gonçalo Guedes, Rodrigo Gomes and Matheus Cunha scored first-half goals at King Power Stadium.
Wolves stayed in the relegation zone but moved two points behind Leicester, which is a place above the bottom three, and Pereira said: “I believe that we will stay in the Premier League and we will play at a better level than we saw today.”
It handed Leicester manager Ruud van Nistelrooy a second straight big loss early in his reign, after a 4-0 defeat at Newcastle last weekend.
Another recently hired Premier League manager, Ivan Juric, began life at Southampton with a 0-0 draw at Fulham.
Juric wasn’t in charge of the team because he doesn’t have a work permit. He was sitting in the stands for the match instead.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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