Setbacks for top teams
Draw against promoted teams: Liverpool and City fail
01/01/2026 – 11:21 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Liverpool had recently won three games in a row. This time it was only enough to get one point against Leeds. Manchester City also couldn’t win their game.
Despite clear superiority, Liverpool FC missed another victory in the Premier League. The team led by Florian Wirtz, who was inconspicuous this time, only managed a 0-0 draw against newly promoted Leeds United and dropped points for the first time after three recent successes. The gap to the strong league leaders FC Arsenal is twelve points after 19 of 38 games this season, Liverpool is fourth.
Wirtz, who recently scored his first goal for Liverpool, was substituted for Cody Gakpo in the 66th minute. The champions controlled the game, pressed and pushed, but rarely found gaps against the guests trained by Daniel Farke. Virgil van Dijk (70th) created danger with a header from a corner, and Hugo Ekitiké also repeatedly appeared in promising positions.
Wirtz’s best opportunity was a free kick that the national player uninspiredly shot into the wall (62′). Leeds finally turned up the heat late on – and supposedly took the lead. But Dominic Calvert-Lewin (81′) scored from an offside position, Anton Stach (90’+1) missed another good chance.
Manchester City also suffered a significant setback in the title race. Pep Guardiola’s oppressively superior team couldn’t get past a disappointing 0-0 draw at AFC Sunderland. The committed guests were close to scoring the winning goal, especially in the final phase. But because the promoted team’s defense held up, Manchester’s gap to leaders Arsenal FC grew to four points.
Former Leipzig player Joško Gvardiol (74th) artistically hit the crossbar and was blocked shortly before the end (89th). Erling Haaland was also unable to assert himself decisively; the Brazilian Savinho (49th) missed a top chance from five meters. Manchester’s pressure grew by the minute, but it wasn’t enough to secure their seventh win in a row.
Instead, Sunderland’s series held: the team of former Leverkusen player Granit In the early stages, Brian Brobbey (19th) missed a great opportunity to make it 1-0 for Sunderland.