Thomas Frank already tempting PL trio in relegation battle as Man City pair nursed back to health | OneFootball

Manchester City could not have been given a more gentle game to close the gap on Arsenal after their Anfield high and at least three Premier League owners might be considering Thomas Frank…

Manchester City 3-0 Fulham: Haaland, Foden nursed back to health

Fulham arrived at the Etihad in the pouring rain reflecting on their laughably bad record against Manchester City and barely made it off the coach.

City have beaten Fulham in their past 19 meetings; the longest winning run one side has had against another in English football history. Marco Silva’s 13 consecutive defeats to City is comfortably the longest 100 per cent losing record against one team in Premier League history. Arsenal fans couldn’t have hoped for any dropped points, but could have done without Fulham nursing City’s out-of-form players back to health.

Erling Haaland scored his first Premier League goal from open play in 2026 – a delightful two-touch manoeuvring of the ball before a left-foot shot swept into the corner from the edge of the box – assisted through a neat pass from Phil Foden, who hadn’t contributed to a goal in his last 13.

Antoine Semenyo had given City the lead after a horrible header by Sander Berge teed him up, before Semenyo slid a lovely pass behind the Fulham defence for the excellent Nico O’Reilly to score with a lovely dink. Over by half-time…

Crystal Palace 2-3 Burnley: Strand Larsen no replacement for Guehi

…which is perhaps what the cliche-denying fools at Crystal Palace believed as they led by the ‘dangerous scoreline’ in the 40th minute at home to relegation fodder Burnley, only to be 3-2 down at half-time.

Jorgen Strand Larsen scoring a brace on his home debut – both excellent, Proper Striker finishes – would ordinarily act as confirmation of that being the right move from Palace in January. But when you’re then conceding three in seven minutes to a Burnley side that’s scored three just once all season, in victory over Wolves, questions have to be raised as to whether £43m might have been better spent on a replacement for your world class centre-back captain rather than on a striker to replace a striker who didn’t leave anyway.

Palace huffed and puffed in the second half but didn’t create a great deal more, and after going fourth on December 7th after victory over Fulham, seven points off top spot, now sit 13th, 24 points below Arsenal and just eight above the relegation zone. Thomas Frank’s available.

Aston Villa 1-0 Brighton: Emery’s side win ugly to pile pressure on Hurzeler

We’ve quite often watched Aston Villa this season and questioned how on earth they’re so high in the table, but perhaps never quite so vehemently as against Brighton at Villa Park here when, in the 60th minute with the game still 0-0, Unai Emery turned to Ross Barkley and Leon Bailey on his bench in search of the goal that would take them within six points of Arsenal at the top of the table.

The answer as to how they’ve (sort of) maintained a title challenge always involves the tactical brilliance of Emery, some mention of Morgan Rogers’ ability to make something out of nothing, and the wonderful balance they’ve had in midfield thanks to John McGinn, Youri Tielemans and Boubacar Kamara.

For the three of them to suffer medium to long-term injuries in consecutive games is extraordinarily rotten luck and this grinding out of a result against Brighton will feel particularly huge because of that.

It came courtesy of a Jack Hinshelwood own goal after Tyrone Mings applied the pressure from a corner, and will further ramp up the pressure on Fabian Hurzeler, whose side played pretty well in the second half after James Milner came on to equal Gareth Barry’s 653 top-flight appearances, but have picked up just nine points from their last 13 games and are very much looking over their shoulders rather than up at the European qualification spots. Thomas Frank’s available.

Nottingham Forest 0-0 Wolves: Dyche’s side draw ugly to pile pressure on Dyche

Sean Dyche will be of a mind to ask what more he can do after watching his side pepper the Wolves goal with 35 shots, ten of which were on target. But more than half of those shots were from outside the box and an xG of 2.73 from that number of attempts illustrates a reality that the fans have endured since he took over: Forest don’t create chances as such – they have shots after moving closer to the opposition goal.

It could end up being a good point, but it’s also one which will see more Forest fans descend into the existential crisis that the 2025/2026 season has become for them. Can’t even score against Wolves at home? Christ, what next? Liverpool, Brighton and then Manchester City. Thomas Frank’s available.