Arsenal follow Liverpool in losing their nerve to hand Manchester City a huge title boost 

LONDON — One-by-one they crumbled. First Liverpool, then Arsenal later on in the evening. Both teams lost their nerve as they could not take advantage of what could be a pivotal weekend in the title race.

It was Gary Lineker who made the famous quote, “Football is a simple game. Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”

You can update that to, “Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, Manchester City always win.”

Pep Guardiola’s men applied the pressure by thrashing Luton on Saturday to go top of the table for the first time since November — and neither of their rivals were able to respond.

In fact, they both fell apart. City have the know-how, experience and now suddenly look favourites to win a fourth title in a row. By comparison, Arsenal looked tired, flat and short of ideas. Arsenal defenders Gabriel, William Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko were all poor but they were equally lacklustre up front.

Aston Villa thoroughly deserved to win as they were far superior in the second half and the victory — thanks to goals from Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins — also gives their top four a huge boost. Advantage Villa over Tottenham. Villa were fantastic as Emiliano Martinez came back to haunt his old club, John McGinn ran midfield and Arsenal just had no response. Mikel Arteta’s men never really looked like winning.

Why Arteta chose to tinker with his line-up formation is anyone’s guess. Leandro Trossard came into midfield and it just did not work. They looked unbalanced and toothless in attack. Trossard came as close to scoring as any Arsenal player but his point blank effort was saved by Villa keeper Martinez’s toe in an even first half.

But Arsenal could not hold their nerve and, having surrendered in last season’s title race, you cannot help but feel that will come back to haunt them again.

Now they have to go to Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday and if they lose in the second leg and go out, then their season will be in serious danger of falling apart.

Jurgen Klopp saw his hopes of a historic quadruple blown to pieces in the space of six days in 2022.

And now Liverpool’s treble bid looks to have fallen apart in less than four days.

It was a desperately disappointing day for Liverpool yesterday.

Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze scored in the 14th minute, leaving Klopp’s hope for the premier league title on his final season with the Reds hanging by a thread.

It was another below-par performance from Liverpool as they failed to turn their possession into goals.

A 3-0 quarter-final first leg loss to Atalanta on Thursday means that barring a miracle, Liverpool will not be featuring in the Europa League final in Dublin next month.

And now, Eze’s winner, which handed Palace a stunning win must have been greeted with cheers from Manchester City fans.

Liverpool, unbeaten at home in the league coming into the game, had been kings of the comeback this season but not against a Palace team who put in a proper shift.

For Reds fans, these nightmare few days are like two years ago when, having won both domestic cups, they were pipped to the title on the final day by Manchester City before losing the Champions League final to Real Madrid in Paris.

Like the previous week against Manchester United, Liverpool paid the price for not taking their chances.

Equally, Palace’s back five defended brilliantly and both Adam Wharton and Will Hughes were outstanding in central midfield.

Liverpool’s finishing was absolutely shocking.

Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones all missed sitters in the second half and Jean-Philippe Mateta should also have put Palace 2-0 up.

Meanwhile, this game was the latest proof that Mo Salah does not look the same player since returning from injury and he also failed to stick away a good chance in injury time.

Oliver Glasner’s team had not won in their previous five matches and had managed just a solitary victory in nine games.

So it is fair to say not many of the Palace fans who made the journey to the North-West would have expected a hugely important win which has seriously eased their relegation worries.

Alisson Becker, who had missed the previous 15 games with a hamstring injury, was back in the place of Caoimhin Kelleher.

Yet the Reds’ problems started following a poor pass by Alisson which Robertson kicked out for a throw.

Palace kept possession in an incredible 21-pass move which drifted from the right over to the left and resulted in Tyrick Mitchell cutting the ball back for Eze.

The marking at the back was dreadful and there was a huge amount of space between Alisson and Virgil van Dijk, which gave Eze an easy chance to score with a first-time shot.

Klopp grimaced as he watched the goal and little wonder.

Anfield was left in silence and it could have got even worse.

Van Dijk delivered a slip reminiscent of Steven Gerrard’s famous mistake against Chelsea a decade ago.

And the Dutchman was thankful that Andy Robertson scrambled back to produce a brilliant goal-line block to keep out an effort from Mateta.

Robertson was Liverpool’s best player and it was from one of his corners which saw Wataru Endo lift a shot against the bar.

The Scottish international then delivered another perfect cross which saw Palace keeper Dean Henderson brilliantly flick over a flying effort from Luis Diaz.

At half-time, Klopp introduced Dominik Szoboszlai for the hopeless Endo and then shortly into the second half, was forced to give Trent Alexander-Arnold his long-awaited run-out due to an injury to Conor Bradley.

You knew it was not Liverpool’s day when Nunez somehow failed to score at point-blank range when he blasted a shot straight at Henderson.

And with Henderson beaten, Jota looked certain to score but his strike was blocked by Nathaniel Clyne.

Mateta also wondered how he failed to make it 2-0 as, from a couple of yards out, he was denied by Alisson.

Jones blazed wide and Salah should have scored but his effort was blocked by Mitchell.

At the end, you only had to look on the faces of Klopp and the players who know they have shot themselves in the foot. — The Daily Mirror-The Sun.