Aussie Harry Souttar scores own goal in EPL debut for Leicester City

Australian Harry Souttar’s English Premier League career started in shocking fashion with an error in his first game for Leicester City.

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 04: Harry Souttar of Leicester City looks on during the Premier League match between Aston Villa and Leicester City at Villa Park on February 04, 2023 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to dig deep after a shock 1-0 defeat at Everton dented the Premier League leaders’ title bid, while Liverpool’s troubled season hit a new low with a woeful 3-0 loss at Wolves.

Arteta’s side were beaten for just the second time in 20 league games this season as James Tarkowski headed Everton’s winner in the 60th minute.

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The Gunners’ only other league defeat came at Manchester United in September. Arsenal still lead second placed Manchester City by five points, but the champions can close the gap to two points if they win at Tottenham on Sunday.

“This is not going to be a rose pathway,” said Arteta of Arsenal’s road to the title.

“This is going to be tricky and we will have to dig in and play much better than we did today.” Everton came into the game on a run of four league defeats at Goodison Park for the first time since 1958.

That disastrous form cost Frank Lampard his job and Sean Dyche’s appointment got the desired bounce with a first win in 11 games.

Everton upset Arsenal to shake up the title race. (Photo by Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

“The minimum requirement is maximum effort and we saw that today,” said Dyche after his first game in charge.

While third-bottom Everton boosted their bid to avoid relegation, their Merseyside rivals Liverpool crashed to a fourth defeat in their last seven games in all competitions, a miserable run featuring only one win.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are languishing in 10th place, 10 points adrift of the top four amid their worst season of Klopp’s seven-year reign.

It is the first time since 2012 that Liverpool have lost three successive away league games, while they have already conceded more league goals this season than they did in the entirety of last term.

Facing a struggling team who kicked off in the relegation zone, Liverpool immediately crumbled as Joel Matip deflected Hwang Hee-chan’s cross into his own net after five minutes.

Wolves debutant Craig Dawson doubled the lead after 12 minutes when the defender smashed in from 10 yards.

With Wolves fans taunting Klopp with chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning”, Ruben Neves sealed the rout with a 71st minute finish from Adama Traore’s cross.

Aussie scores own goal on EPL debut

Leicester twice came from behind to win 4-2 at Aston Villa.

Villa went ahead after 10 minutes through Ollie Watkins, but James Maddison levelled two minutes later.

Unai Emery’s men regained the lead with a 32nd minute own goal from Australian Harry Souttar in his Leicester debut after joining on a $26 million transfer.

The own goal came with the scores locked at 1-1 as Villa striker Ollie Watkins crossed the ball into the box, only for it to deflect off Souttar and into the net.

Harry Souttar own goal on debut 😭😭😭

— Jarrad (@JarradHD) February 4, 2023

Glad to see Harry Souttar is carrying on Wout Faes legacy, scoring an own goal on his debut

— Casey Evans (@Casey_Evans_) February 4, 2023

Oh no, Harry Souttar own goal 🙈 #AVLLEI

— Lachlan McKirdy (@LMcKirdy7) February 4, 2023

It wasn’t the way Souttar wanted to start his Premier League career, but he bounced back from the own goal to defend well for the rest of the game.

Not the way Harry Souttar would have wanted to start his EPL career. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

“He was unfortunate with the own goal, but he recovered and kept going,” manager Brendan Rodgers said, per AAP.

“Big Harry’s a presence, but he can also play football – anybody who saw him at the World Cup, he was outstanding there.

“So for him to come in, having only just joined the club, and into a real tough away game, up against Watkins, who’s a really good player, I thought he did really well.”

Leicester equalised again in the 41st minute through Kelechi Iheanacho and Tete netted on his debut in first half stoppage-time before Dennis Praet wrapped up the points in the 79th minute.

Brentford climbed to seventh place and pushed bottom of the table Southampton deeper into trouble with a 3-0 win at the Community Stadium, the goals coming from Ben Mee, Bryan Mbeumo and Mathias Jensen.

Kaoru Mitoma’s 87th minute header gave sixth placed Brighton a 1-0 victory against second bottom Bournemouth.

Souttar was solid on debut for Leicester City. (Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

United survive red card

Ten-man Manchester United cemented their grip on third place with a 2-1 win against Crystal Palace.

Two days before the anniversary of the 1958 Munich air crash that killed eight United players on the way home from a match against Red Star Belgrade, Old Trafford paid an emotional pre-match tribute to the victims of the tragedy.

In the seventh minute, United were awarded a penalty after VAR showed Will Hughes handled Marcus Rashford’s cross, with Bruno Fernandes coolly converting from the spot.

Rashford struck in the 62nd minute with a composed finish from Luke Shaw’s cross.

United were reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute when Brazil midfielder Casemiro grabbed Will Hughes by the throat.

Jeff Schlupp’s 76th minute strike set up a tense finish but United held on to win six successive home league games for the first time since 2017.