City stalled, Liverpool blunt as New Year turns goal-shy

IMAGE: Manchester City’s Tijjani Reijnders in action with Sunderland’s Trai Hume. Photograph: Scott Heppell/Reuters

The Premier League’s festive feast turned stale on Thursday as the New Year’s Day programme served up three 0-0 draws, most significantly Manchester City’s stalemate at Sunderland which left them four points adrift of leaders Arsenal.

Second-placed City would have reduced Arsenal’s advantage to two points but instead were frustrated as their winning streak in all competitions was halted at eight.

Liverpool’s attack was also found wanting as they drew 0-0 at home to Leeds United while there were no goals at Brentford as they ground out a draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

The only goals of the day came at Selhurst Park where Fulham’s Tom Cairney scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw.

Sunderland have proved stubborn opposition on their return to the Premier League and have now drawn with City, Arsenal and third-placed Aston Villa at their Stadium of Light.

They are only the second promoted team to remain unbeaten in their first 10 home games in a Premier League campaign, after Ipswich Town in 1992-93, and were worth their point.

City did everything in their power to make the breakthrough but home goalkeeper Robin Roefs pulled off a series of saves while the closest the visitors came to scoring was Josko Gvardiol’s header which shaved the post in the second half.

“They are so physical. They’re so strong, so it’s not a surprise at that. We take the point,” City boss Pep Guardiola said. “Really pleased with the performances, especially in the second half. There’s still a long way (to go).”

One boost for City was the sight of Rodri back in action as a substitute for the injured Niko Gonzalez having recovered from a hamstring injury that had restricted him to a handful of minutes in the last three months.

IMAGE: Leeds United’s Lukas Nmecha in action with Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Arsenal’s 4-1 thrashing of Villa on Tuesday put them on 45 points at the halfway stage of the season while Pep Guardiola’s City have 41 after just their second league draw of the season.

Next up for Arsenal is a trip to struggling Bournemouth on Saturday while City are at home a day later against Chelsea who parted ways with coach Enzo Maresca on Thursday.

Reigning champions Liverpool are 12 points behind Arsenal in fourth place as they produced a lacklustre display.

Their best chance fell to Hugo Ekitike but his miss rather summed up Liverpool’s day, somehow heading an inviting cross by Jeremie Frimpong away from goal when he seemed set to score.

It could have been worse for Arne Slot’s side too with Dominic Calvert-Lewin having an 81st-minute goal disallowed for offside after latching on to a pass by Noah Okafor.

“You would like to start off (2026) with a win,” Slot said. “But it was difficult. I don’t think we were able to play many times through their low block.

“Sometimes we didn’t have enough bodies in front of the goal and in other moments where we did create or we were close to a goal, we were a bit unfortunate.”

For Leeds it was another important point in their bid to stay clear of the relegation zone. They are in 16th place with 21 points, seven ahead of third-from-bottom West Ham United.

“It doesn’t come along that often that you get a clean sheet and a point at Anfield,” Leeds boss Daniel Farke said.

“We had to defend and suffer but we are newly promoted and came to the defending champions.”

Spurs manager Thomas Frank went back to his old club Brentford but it was a forgettable affair as Tottenham’s 137-game run in the Premier League without a goalless draw ended.

Their last one was also against Brentford in May 2022.

The draw left Tottenham in 12th place with 26 points while Brentford, who had the better chances, are ninth with 27.

Palace are now winless in six matches in all competitions as they were denied victory by a superb curling shot by Cairney.

Jean-Philippe Mateta had headed Palace into the lead but the hosts faded and Fulham would have snatched all three points had Dean Henderson not made a great save to deny Timothy Castagne and had Joachim Andersen not blazed a shot over.

“When the legs and the mind are not that fresh it’s a little bit difficult. It was a good point today,” Palace manager Oliver Glasner said. Palace are 10th with Fulham 11th, both on 27 points.