Dark day for Manchester United and City after Halloween defeats

LONDON, Oct 31 : Manchester United's nightmare winless run reached nine games when they lost 2-0 at Chelsea and Manchester City also suffered a harrowing Halloween as the Premier League leaders went down 1-0 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.

United were the better team before halftime at Stamford Bridge but paid heavily for not taking chances as a solo effort by Morgan Rogers and a Cole Palmer penalty after the break heaped more pressure on the visitors' manager Michael Carrick.

A horror start to the second half for United was compounded by a needless red card for defender Lisandro Martinez in conceding the 63rd-minute penalty that Palmer tucked away.

United were spared dropping into the relegation zone only by virtue of Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace both losing - 2-0 at Brentford and Tottenham Hotspur respectively.

City's 100 per cent Premier League record was ended last week by Aston Villa and their hopes of bouncing back quickly were undone by third-placed Brighton who avenged their midweek League Cup loss to City thanks to Yasin Ayari's early goal.

FOREST'S POOR FORM CONTINUES

Champions Arsenal will replace City as leaders if they avoid defeat at Liverpool on Sunday. City have 21 points from nine games with Arsenal also on 21 from eight, Brighton on 19 and Chelsea in fourth place on 16.

Coventry City moved out of the relegation zone as Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Taiwo Awoniyi and Jack Rudoni were on target in a 3-1 home win over Sunderland who are bottom.

Bournemouth beat Leeds United 2-0 to move seventh with Evanilson netting for the fourth successive league game while Forest remain in the bottom three as their poor form under new manager Oliver Glasner continued with defeat at Brentford making it five league