Manchester City lost further ground on Premier League 2025/26 leaders Arsenal on Saturday when they were held to a 1-1 draw with West Ham United, leaving them nine points behind with a game in hand.
After Arsenal left too late to beat Everton 2-0, Bernardo Silva put City ahead in the 31st minute with a lucky chip off 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 side dropped points again, and City came forward after the break with increasing desperation to find a winner.
Erling Haaland, after a run of four goals in his previous 17 games, scored a fingertip save from Hermansen before firing a shot wide after Antoine Semenyo’s cutback.
Marc Guehi then went terribly wide in the fifth minute of extra time, as West Ham rightly clung to a precious point in the relegation battle.
City remained second with 61 points from 30 games after suffering another blow to their title hopes following a sobering 3-0 first-leg defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.
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West Ham moved out of the relegation zone for the first time since December and moved into 17th place with 29 points, one ahead of Nottingham Forest, who have a game in hand.
CITY MISSING ADVANCED
Man City dominated possession in the opening stages but failed to come close to creating a chance, a theme throughout the match.
Haaland missed the first real chance when he completely misjudged a header from Rayan Ait-Nouri’s cross, but Silva opened the scoring minutes later tsn4.
The City captain appeared to aim a cross at Haaland, who instead floated over Hermansen into the side netting.
The hosts equalized shortly afterwards through Mavropanos, who met Bowen’s corner with a towering header after Gianluigi Donnarumma missed his strike, leaving Guardiola – who was serving a touchline suspension in the stands – with his head in his hands.
Semenyo almost restored City’s lead on the stroke of half-time, but placed his shot narrowly past the post with Hermansen beaten.
The visitor made a double change on the hour, introducing Rayan Cherki and Jeremy Doku, and it paid off almost immediately when Cherki played Haaland, who was denied by Hermansen.
Tijjani Reijnders’ late free-kick bounced off the crossbar as City huffed and puffed, but when the final chance fell to Guehi he could not find the target.
Published on March 15, 2026
