Man City and Villa close gap on Arsenal, Forest waste opportunity

11 Feb 2026, 22:21 · CNA · Join

Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Fulham - Etihad Stadium, Manchester, Britain - February 11, 2026 Manchester City's Erling Haaland scores their third goal REUTERS/Phil Noble

Soccer Football - Premier League - Crystal Palace v Burnley - Selhurst Park, London, Britain - February 11, 2026 Burnley's Bashir Humphreys and Hannibal Mejbri celebrate their third goal, an own goal scored by Crystal Palace's Jefferson Lerma Action Images via Reuters/Paul Childs

Read a summary of this article on FAST.
Get bite-sized news via a new
cards interface. Give it a try.
Click here to return to FAST Tap here to return to FAST
FAST

MANCHESTER, Feb 11 : Manchester City halved Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League with a 3-0 home defeat of Fulham and Aston Villa stayed in the frame with a late 1-0 victory at home to Brighton and Hove Albion on Wednesday.

Nottingham Forest squandered a chance to put some distance between themselves and the bottom three as they drew 0-0 at home to bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers. Second-from-bottom Burnley pulled off a remarkable 3-2 comeback win at Crystal Palace to boost their slender survival hopes.

City have little margin for error in their pursuit of leaders Arsenal, who are away at Brentford on Thursday, but produced a clinical display to dispose of Fulham.

Three goals in a 15-minute spell in the first half secured the points for Pep Guardiola's side who moved on to 53 points from 26 games, three behind leaders Arsenal.

Subscribe to CNA's Recommended Read
A single handpicked story that we think you shouldn't miss. Just one a day.

This service is not intended for persons residing in the E.U. By clicking subscribe, I agree to receive news updates and promotional material from Mediacorp and Mediacorp’s partners.
Loading

Antoine Semenyo poked City ahead in the 24th minute and then set up Nico O'Reilly with a pinpoint pass for the second.

Phil Foden then found Erling Haaland who dispatched a shot for his 22nd league goal of the campaign.

Villa's slender title chances appeared to be ebbing away as they laboured at home against Brighton.

But they secured the points when Brighton's Jack Hinshelwood scored into his own goal after 86 minutes. Brighton midfielder James Milner, 40, came off the bench for his 653rd top-flight appearance, equalling Gareth Barry's record.

Forest had a remarkable 35 goal attempts against Wolves at the City Ground but none of them found the back of the net as Sean Dyche's side dropped two important points.

The draw left them in 17th place, only three points above third-from-bottom West Ham United.

Wolves have nine points but are now only two points behind the lowest-ever Premier League total - Derby County's 11 in the 2007-08 season.

Burnley ended a 16-game winless streak in remarkable fashion at Selhurst Park.

Palace were cruising after two goals by new signing Jorgen Strand Larsen inside the opening 35 minutes.

Burnley had not registered a shot on target in the opening 39 minutes but bizarrely were ahead by halftime.

Hannibal Mejbri halved the deficit with a sweetly struck shot and Jaidon Anthony then drove a low shot inside the post to equalise. Burnley then went ahead in first-half stoppage time as Palace keeper Dean Henderson parried a shot but the ball trickled in off the foot of his team mate Jefferson Lerma.

Palace could not respond after the break as Burnley got their first league win since October, although they are still nine points behind Forest.

Man City and Villa close gap on Arsenal, Forest waste opportunity

Recommended Read

Sign up for our newsletters

Get the CNA app