Fulham beat their neighbors and visitors Arsenal 2–1 to miss out on a return to the top of the English Premier League and dropped to fourth place in the twenty-first round. Tottenham's 3-1 win over Bournemouth ends the round with a clash today (Monday) with Liverpool looking to go level with Newcastle alone.

Arsenal headed to Fulham Stadium, hoping for a win that would guarantee them the lead, albeit temporarily, and when they took the lead in the fifth minute with an early goal through Bugayo Saga, they looked to be on their way to achieving their goal. But the home side responded strongly and scored twice through the attackers. Mexico's Raul Jimenez and Jamaica's Bobby Reid in the 29th and 59th minutes. Arsenal paid the price for their team's defensive errors, with the first goal coming from a counterattack and the second goal coming from confusion during a corner kick.

It was Arsenal's second defeat in a row after a 2-0 defeat at their other London neighbors West Ham United last Thursday and a 1-1 draw with Liverpool before that.

Arsenal dropped to fourth place with 40 points from 20 matches, a sad end to last season's second-placed 2023. On the other hand, 13th-placed Fulham bounced back from 3 consecutive defeats without scoring a goal.

In another game, the Senegalese Babe Sar led Tottenham Hotspur to a 3-1 win over Bournemouth before going off with an injury just days before the Africa Cup of Nations.

Midfielder Sarr scored a goal in the ninth minute and then went off injured in the 32nd minute amid tears and condolences with other players, before Senegal began their journey to defend their title at the Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d'Ivoire. Ivory and Brazil's Richarlison and South Korean captain Son Heung-min scored in mid-January. Tottenham remain in fifth place with 39 points, but bounced back from a heavy 4-2 defeat against Brighton last Thursday. .

The defeat ended Bournemouth's impressive run of 7 league matches unbeaten, which included 6 wins, and left them in 12th place with 25 points.

The stage ends today with Liverpool taking on Newcastle. Liverpool's German coach Jurgen Klopp, who has 42 points so far, will be looking to cement his superiority over Newcastle with a sixth win in a row, while his rivals will be hoping for their first win. Red team for over 8 years.

On the other hand, Dutch coach Erik ten Haag, the coach of Manchester United, called on his team to come out of the slump they have suffered recently and called for his players to find consistency following their 2-1 loss to Nottingham. Saturday evening forest.

Despite United's bright start to 2023 by winning the League Cup title and qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League this season, the team's results quickly declined following the exit.

An early exit from the continental competition, his farewell to the League Cup and an early exit from the English league title race.

“One thing is clear: we are not consistent,” said den Haag. “We can beat the best teams in the league, but we also lose the games we need to win, and I think Forest is one of those games.”

United overcame a 0-2 deficit against hosts Aston Villa to win 3-2 in the earlier stages before suffering their 14th defeat in various competitions this season, their most at the end of the year. Forest 29 years ago after suffering their first defeat at the stadium in the 1930-1931 season.

Den Haag added: “We always have to make changes in the squad (because of the absence). I think I'm not talking too much about the players we don't have. Every time I say, it doesn't matter who plays, but we have to win. He explained: “Every If we have to make changes in the formation in the match, there is no structure. There is an example, when (Rasmus) Hoyland is sick,​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ We has to adjust our attacking line-up, which caused the element of pace to be missing, especially in the first half.

After their impressive win against Aston Villa 4 days ago, United came back to reality with a defeat against Forest.

Manchester United's position has continued to fluctuate this season, with the team sitting 11 points adrift in seventh place in the table after losing their ninth league game in 20 matches.

Jamie Redknapp, a commentator for the British Sky Sports channel, said: “Manchester United's position is very unstable. It's terrible to watch them. They have no real hunger or desire and they seem to be playing under duress. Not enough ambition or desire.” Former United defender Gary Neville said, “There's no pattern to the game and I find it hard to see what they're trying to do.”

United suffered a poor run of form, losing 9 of their top 20 league matches in a season for the first time since 1989–1990, the same number of defeats they suffered all of last season in Den Haag's first season.

“We performed above expectations last year and below expectations so far this year. We need to step up and move forward. I need to lead the process.”

United, who are out of the Champions League and League Cup, have amassed 31 points, nine ahead of fourth-placed Arsenal, with the rest of the postponed match remaining. United are the third lowest scoring team behind Burnley and Sheffield United. Den Haag said: “The rankings don't lie, but you saw we competed with Arsenal, Liverpool and Aston Villa.”

The loss at the Forest Stadium continued to put pressure on Den Haag after Jim Radcliffe's “Ineos” group bought a quarter of United's shares and oversight of the football club.

Dave Brailsford, Inio's sporting director, now in charge at United, watched the team's match at Forest Stadium and Den Haag commented: “He will certainly see that we have our problems and that we want to win (over Aston Villa), but again we had to… Striker (Hoyland) replaced due to illness.

Additionally, Crystal Palace coach Roy Hodgson expressed his anger at questions from journalists about his future with the team, describing them as “disrespectful”.

The veteran manager's side ended an eight-match winless run with a 3-1 home win over Brentford on Saturday after Hodgson admitted Palace were going through a “difficult period” with just one win in their last 12. League matches.

Hodgson's future has been thrown into question after reports of his successor in the role, including Steve Cooper, who was recently sacked as Nottingham Forest manager. Asked at a press conference if he was thinking about sacking speculation, he angrily replied: “No, I'm thinking about the competition.” What should we do? It is inert and cannot be affected by external noise. If the hype isn't directed at me, it will be directed at someone else because that's part of the game. “You don't go weeks without noise, so when you've been in football as long as I have been, you have to be aware of it.” He added: “My position has always been clear: I'm working to do a job and I'll do it to the best of my ability. If some people want me to leave the club, they can tell me, I have to do it.

When Hodgson was asked again about the speculation about Cooper and whether Saturday's result proved his critics wrong, he replied sharply: “I'll tell you what I really think.” I am 76 years old and have been working for 47 years. I was awarded an OBE for services to football and have an incredible CV. So, my final answer to you is that none of this makes any difference or interest to me, and I find it disrespectful.