By the end, the Forest defender had an own goal, a yellow card and a deflection on Brentford's second to his name. Igor Thiago's scuffed finish 14 minutes from time settled a 2-0 win that keeps Keith Andrews' side in the top six, and leaves Oliver Glasner's Forest in 19th with six points from nine games.

Forest started on the front foot. Morgan Gibbs-White's shot from the edge of the box was deflected wide, and from the resulting pressure Neco Williams whipped in a lovely delivery that Jair Cunha couldn't get his feet sorted for. James McAtee was given all the time in the world on the edge of the area and drilled a low shot inches wide.

Brentford's best moments were half-chances. Mamadou Sangaré caught a volley cleanly from a cleared corner and whipped it just over the bar. Liam Delap, at the other end, swivelled for a half-volley and sent it into the stands. Thiago and Delap had one league goal each all season, and it showed.

The breakthrough came on 30 minutes, and it started with the goalkeeper. Caoimhín Kelleher sent a brilliant diagonal ball out to Dango Ouattara, who waltzed past Murillo and fizzed it across the six-yard box. Thiago was waiting, unmarked. He never got a touch. The ball came off Milenković's boot and looped over a wrong-footed Matz Sels.

Nobody in the ground seemed quite sure what had happened, the stadium announcer included.

Things nearly got worse for him straight away. Kevin Schade nutmegged him moments later and Milenković had to drag him back, somehow escaping a booking. Two minutes after that he wasn't so lucky. He clipped Schade right on the edge of his own box, half a second from giving away a penalty, and went into the book. Mathias Jensen curled the free-kick against the crossbar.

Glasner made a double change at the break. Ryan Yates, making his first appearance of the season, came on for Xaver Schlager and took the armband off Gibbs-White, and Dan Muñoz replaced Ola Aina. Ten minutes into the half came Forest's best chance of the game. Gibbs-White crossed, Yates timed his run across Michael Kayode perfectly, and from four yards he headed over.

An hour went by with still no shot on target from either side. Chris Wood and Arnaud Kalimuendo came on for Delap and Dan Ndoye, Muñoz was booked for clipping Schade's heels, and Kayode was booked for arguing. Glasner was animated on the touchline. Then Thiago, who still hasn't found his touch in front of goal, was the one standing on his own line heading a Forest effort clear.

The second came on 76 minutes. Substitute Jaidon Anthony surged down the right and squared it for Thiago, whose shot took a deflection off, inevitably, Milenković on its way in. It was not the prettiest finish. He won't care.

Forest had nothing left. They had taken 14 shots before they finally hit the target, a weak McAtee effort on 79 minutes that Kelleher gathered easily. McAtee was booked for dragging back Schade, the latest in a long line of Forest players to stop him by any means, and Schade made way for Callum Wilson. In the closing minutes the Brentford players wanted a second yellow for Milenković after he pulled back Thiago in the centre circle, then did the same thing again. Darren England kept his cards in his pocket.

Forest finished with more shots and more of the ball, but they committed 17 fouls to six and never seriously troubled Kelleher. Their own supporters booed them off. It is four games without a win now, and Glasner's side are sinking.

Glasner did not hide from it. Kelleher's long diagonal for the opener was, by his count, the fourth goal Forest have conceded from a goalkeeper's long ball. They have now failed to score in five of their nine league games, more than any other side, despite out-creating their opponents on expected goals in seven of them.

He went further, warning his players that anyone who will not follow the new way should expect that "the sixth manager will come in".

For Brentford, there was nothing pretty about it, in the 100th Premier League game at the Gtech. There didn't need to be. It ended a four-match winless run, and they are up to 14 points and sixth.

Andrews rated it highly all the same.

It is now nine games without a win in all competitions, United's longest run since October and November 1988. This was their third defeat in a row and fourth in the league, and it leaves them 16th, a point above the bottom three. Carrick survived the week after the 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth. He will do well to survive the next one.

Carrick had brought Bruno Fernandes back as captain, a week after leaving him on the bench for criticising his tactics after the 4-1 defeat at Como. For a while it looked like the right call. Fernandes drifted in from the left, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha were lively, and Andrey Santos, back at his old club, swept a 20-yard shot just wide early on.

Alonso had problems of his own. João Pedro was injured, so Pedro Neto led the line, Jordan Henderson was out ill, and Marco Palestra made his first Chelsea start at full-back. Mike Penders kept his place in goal a week after his mistake against Spurs.

Chelsea were a mess at the back. Wesley Fofana's mistakes twice let Amad Diallo clean through. Penders saved low to his left from the first, and the second went high and wide. Fernandes got on the end of a breakaway and skied Mbeumo's pass into the Matthew Harding Stand. Mbeumo was inches from Fernandes' low cross, and only Levi Colwill's covering stopped Cunha getting clear.

On the half-hour United thought they'd scored. Harry Maguire headed a corner on and Cunha put it in from close range, but VAR found Cunha half a yard offside. Chelsea had their moments too. Moisés Caicedo deflected a Fofana header onto the post, and Estêvão, given his first league start of the season by Xabi Alonso, tapped in after Senne Lammens spilled a Pedro Neto shot, but he was offside. Still, it was the visitors who should have been two up.

It took five minutes of the second half to undo all of it. Mbeumo turned into trouble in midfield, Caicedo blocked his path and Roméo Lavia nicked the ball past Carlos Baleba. Morgan Rogers picked it up in the centre circle with the whole United defence in front of him.

Nobody stopped him. Santos couldn't get across, Lisandro Martínez grabbed at his shirt, and Maguire and Martínez ran alongside him until he was seven yards out. Then he dinked it over Lammens. It was the club-record £117m signing's sixth goal for Chelsea.

Martínez was making only his second start since publicly criticising the club's hierarchy, and he had looked solid until Chelsea scored. He was booked for kicking at Rogers' ankles. Minutes later, as a Chelsea corner drifted harmlessly away, he turned his back on the ball and shoved an arm into Fofana's face.

VAR sent Peter Bankes to the monitor, and it was one of the simplest reviews of the season: second yellow, red card, penalty. Palmer's spot-kick wasn't well struck, and Lammens got a big hand to it, but it squeezed into the bottom corner. Martínez walked past his manager on the way to the tunnel, and Carrick didn't look at him.

Once United were down to ten, Chelsea had the game to themselves. Maguire stuck out a leg to stop Palmer tapping in Estêvão's cut-back. Then Estêvão lashed a rising shot into the top corner after Lavia stole the ball from Fernandes, and was ruled offside by a shoulder. Lammens tipped away his curler later on. Amad went off hurt, and Mainoo, Zirkzee and Mbeumo all ended up in the book.

Ten minutes were added. In stoppage time Mbeumo hit a rising half-volley that Penders turned onto the underside of the bar. At the other end, substitute Valentín Barco sliced wide from six yards at the far post. Chelsea finished with 18 shots to 12 and an xG of 2.67 to 1.17, and United committed 20 fouls to Chelsea's eight.

Asked if he expected to stay in charge, Carrick said only: "Yeah." At the whistle he walked over to the away end, where they were still singing his name. Fernandes followed him and looked close to tears. United's chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox watched from the stands, and the away end had spent the afternoon chanting against the Glazers and Wilcox.

Alonso, whose side had lost to Spurs last weekend and gone out of the Carabao Cup at Anfield on Wednesday, called it "a mature performance". In his press conference he put the turnaround down to what was said at half-time.

He saved his warmest words for Estêvão, who had not even got off the bench at Anfield.

Of Lavia, who won the ball for the opener, Alonso said simply: "From a midfielder's point of view, it has been a top, top performance."

Villa should have been out of sight long before that. Fulham hardly got out of their own half in the first 20 minutes, and on 14 minutes the VAR sent referee Sam Barrott to the monitor to look at Sander Berge, whose arm was raised high above his head as the ball hit it. McGinn stepped up, leaned back and hit the crossbar.

Suzuki kept it goalless. On 32 minutes Fulham broke from a Villa corner, Antonee Robinson ran down the left and slid the ball across to Oscar Bobb, and Suzuki got his fingertips to the shot and pushed it over the bar. Seven minutes later Nicolas Jackson cut back inside with nobody closing him down and slotted a right-footed shot into the bottom corner. That's five goals in five top-flight games for him. Suzuki then came out to smother at Josh King's feet just before the break.

Fulham were the better side after half-time. On 63 minutes Suzuki denied Alex Iwobi at close range and Gonzalo García's follow-up was blocked by last-ditch defending. A minute later Iwobi swung in a corner that dropped right on top of the keeper. Suzuki fumbled it and carried the ball over his own line.

Villa were quick to put an arm round him. "It's frustrating because don't want to concede goals but it can happen to everyone," Ian Maatsen told Sky Sports. "Zion is a great guy, great goalkeeper. He will learn from it. We will support him and go again."

Villa pushed hard at the end. A 90th-minute free-kick was headed just wide from close range and Alejandro Garnacho had a shot blocked in stoppage time, but Fulham held on.

Alvaro Arbeloa was delighted with what he saw after the break.

He said the first-half problem was simple: "They were much more aggressive than us. We are a team who want take the ball, control the game through the ball and technically, I think we are very good. But this is the Premier League and you have to be physical and aggressive." Asked about the penalty, he said: "I can't talk about referees, or you can pay the fine for me if you want."

His players felt the same. "I think we should have got more. We missed two chances inside the six-yard box," said Calvin Bassey. Shea Charles added: "The way the goal came wasn't how we deserved it really, but positive signs. We could've won the game in the end, but a really good away performance."

So Villa's hopes of a third straight league win go, and Matty Cash is suspended for the next one after his fifth booking. Fulham, who had lost their last five games when trailing at half-time, finally came back and took something.

In front of 60,503 at the Etihad, Yasin Ayari's goal on 11 minutes was enough. Bart Verbruggen did the rest, making seven saves as City threw 21 shots at him. The leaders have now lost back-to-back league games, and these are testing times for Enzo Maresca.

Maresca had kept his word. It was "Gigio plus 10", Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal, though Marc Guéhi and Rayan Cherki were dropped after the defeat at Villa, with Matheus Nunes and Ayyoub Bouaddi brought in. City started on the front foot. It was Brighton who scored, just as they had on Wednesday, and it came from a free-kick that should probably never have been given. Elliot Anderson was penalised for a challenge on Ayari. Lewis Dunk swept the ball out to Diego Gómez, Nunes missed the cross, Maxim De Cuyper knocked it back in, and Ayari swept it into an empty net with Donnarumma stranded.

City came at them. A corner very nearly reached Erling Haaland at the back post, and Joško Gvardiol headed the next one well wide. Iliman Ndiaye leapt highest at a corner and should have equalised but headed off target, then swerved between two defenders only to shoot straight at Verbruggen. Haaland swung at fresh air after Jérémy Doku's cut-back. Elliot Anderson fired into an empty net, but the flag was already up. At the other end, Donnarumma had to save from a tight angle to stop Charalampos Kostoulas.

Then came the penalty appeals. Vušković touched Diego Gómez's ball with his hand from close range, and Ndiaye's ball across the box appeared to hit Dunk's hand. VAR looked at the second, and Craig Pawson blew for half-time instead. The boos at the break were presumably for the officials.

Brighton should have had a second early in the second half. Ayari timed his run perfectly and put it on a plate for De Cuyper, who blasted over. Donnarumma then had to dive at his near post to stop De Cuyper's header from a looping ball.

Just before that, Verbruggen had made a better save at the other end. Ndiaye drove from halfway on the counter and Verbruggen dived to his left to tip it onto the woodwork. Maresca sent on Rayan Cherki, then Nico O'Reilly, then Phil Foden and Allan for Ndiaye and Gvardiol, with Doku still on. It was everything on the attack.

The moment that summed up City's afternoon came after Cherki's arrival. The ball came across the box and Haaland looked certain to tap in, until Vušković slid in and nudged it back to his own keeper. Maresca screamed at the fourth official that it was a backpass. Nobody agreed.

Haaland headed straight at Verbruggen. Verbruggen saved from Nunes. Doku worked his way into the box and O'Reilly's ball across the six-yard line found Ndiaye at the back post, but he couldn't direct it on target. Late on, O'Reilly had the best chance of all and couldn't get his header on target. Brighton almost had a second on the break when substitute Jack Hinshelwood ran onto Georginio Rutter's pass and chipped Donnarumma, but it went into the side netting.

In stoppage time, Verbruggen made one more big save. City's last corner brought Donnarumma up, and it came to nothing.

City finished with 61% of the ball, 21 shots to seven and eight corners to two. Brighton had the win, and it was their first in the top flight at this ground. City had failed to score at home in the league for the first time in 23 games, since a 2-0 defeat by Tottenham in August 2025.

Maresca had seen this film before, at Villa Park.

Hürzeler, who had complained about the luck on Wednesday, was happy to admit his side had some of their own this time.

It was Brighton's first win at City in any competition, at the 18th attempt.