Man City resisted at West Ham and lost ground against the Premier League leader, Arsenal | football news

Manchester City drew 1-1 with relegation-threatened West Ham to move nine points behind Arsenal in the Premier League race.

Manchester City lost further ground to Premier League leaders Arsenal on Saturday, drawing 1-1 at West Ham United, leaving them nine points behind the leaders with a game in hand.

After Arsenal went late to beat Everton 2-0, Bernardo Silva put City ahead in the 31st minute with a lucky shot over goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, before Konstantinos Mavropanos headed in Jarrod Bowen’s corner four minutes later.

City manager Pep Guardiola had claimed the title race could be over if his team dropped points again, and City surged forward with increasing desperation in search of a winner after the break.

Erling Haaland, on a streak of four goals in his previous 17 games, tipped a save from Hermansen before missing a shot wide after a cutback by Antoine Semenyo.

Marc Guehi then shot horribly wide in the fifth minute of stoppage time as West Ham deservedly held on to a valuable point in their relegation battle.

Manchester City remained second, with 61 points from 30 games, having suffered another blow to their title hopes following a sobering 3-0 first leg defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday. West Ham moved out of the relegation zone for the first time since December and into 17th place with 29 points, one ahead of Nottingham Forest, who have a game less.

Man City dominated possession in the early stages but came nowhere close to creating a chance, a theme throughout the match.

Haaland wasted the first real chance when he misjudged a header from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross, but Silva opened the scoring minutes later.

The City captain appeared to be aiming a cross at Haaland, who instead floated over Hermansen and into the side netting.

The hosts tied shortly afterwards thanks to Mavropanos, who headed in a Bowen corner after Gianluigi Donnarumma missed his shot, leaving Guardiola, who was serving a suspension on the sidelines, with his head in his hands.

Semenyo almost regained City’s lead on the stroke of half-time, but his shot just missed the post, with Hermansen overtaken.

The visitors made a double substitution on the hour, bringing on Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku, and it almost paid off immediately, with Cherki bringing on Haaland, who was denied by Hermansen.

Tijjani Reijnders’ late free-kick bounced off the crossbar, as City huffed and puffed, but when the last chance fell to Guehi, he couldn’t find the target.