William Osula came off the bench to score a late goal as 10-man Newcastle United beat Manchester United 2-1 in the Premier League to end Michael Carrick’s unbeaten run as caretaker manager.
Playing the entire second half with one player down, Newcastle shocked third-placed United with a spectacular solo goal on the stroke of full-time as Carrick lost for the first time in seven games on Wednesday.
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Meanwhile, Arsenal took control of the title race when Bukayo Saka’s goal secured an invaluable 1-0 win at Brighton and Hove Albion, and Manchester City could only draw 2-2 at home to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest.
Man United’s defeat left the visitors nine points behind second-placed City and still level with Aston Villa on 51 points.
The game in Newcastle played out over a chaotic 10 minutes of first-half stoppage time, when Jacob Ramsey was sent off for a second yellow card after the referee decided he had taken a dive, with the clock at 45+1 minutes.
Anthony Gordon won a penalty after a clash with United captain Bruno Fernandes five minutes later and put Newcastle 1-0 up with his ninth successful spot-kick of nine so far this season.
The half-time whistle was still missing when Fernandes, from a set piece, found Casemiro, who tied the score with a header at 45+9.
At times in the second half it was difficult to tell which team was with 10 men.
The third team that arrived on Tyneside showing off its firepower (Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko) and that Newcastle would have loved to sign last year ended up failing to shine.
Or Newcastle, who, after three home league games without a win, made steady progress in the face of adversity.
“We’re not happy with the way we played the game tonight,” said Carrick, a Newcastle fan since childhood.
“I don’t think it was the 10 men. We just didn’t play well enough tonight. We can’t make any excuses for that.
“They deserved to win tonight… it hurts tonight, because we don’t like losing games, but we will be better for the next one.”
Mikel Arteta’s side arrived at their mission on the south coast top of the table, looking down on City, but ended the night with a first title since 2004 shining on the horizon after a huge turnaround in their favour.
Saka’s deflected shot in the ninth minute proved enough and Arsenal kept a 14th Premier League clean sheet of the season with a brave performance that Saka described as “ugly”.
Wasteful City twice led with goals from Antoine Semenyo and Rodri, but on both occasions Forest hit back, first through Morgan Gibbs-White’s clever backheel and then in the 76th minute through Elliot Anderson’s low shot.
City bombarded the Forest area in the final moments and almost scored with the last shot of the game, but Savinho’s shot was cleared by Murillo.
Arsenal have 67 points from 30 games, compared to City’s 60 from 29, and are now firmly back in command, although they still have to go to City on April 19.
“It’s a really difficult place to come and win. Every team that comes here suffers, but we did what we had to do to win,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said.
“We are coming back from very difficult games with a lot of intensity, with players really crossing the line in every game with difficulties, not being able to train and to come here and get the result we got, it is remarkable.”
City dominated Forest and should have been celebrating a fifth successive league victory, but they looked deflated at the final whistle having slipped by two points, although manager Pep Guardiola said there was still a long way to go.
“There are still many games to play, one less,” said Guardiola about the difference with Arsenal. “Now it’s Newcastle (in the FA Cup) and I’m always thinking about what’s next.
“If we analyze, overall it was a good performance and there were a lot of good things. Of course, we have things we can improve, but overall, pretty good.”
United remained in third place with 51 points, while Aston Villa also have 51 in fourth place after being thrashed 4-1 at home by Chelsea, for whom Joao Pedro scored a hat-trick. Chelsea overtook Liverpool and took fifth place with 48 points.
