Aston Villa loses to Brentford to hurt Premier League title bid and Man United wins again

By Canadian Press on February 1, 2026.

Aston Villa’s Premier League title ambitions were dented by a loss to 10-man Brentford on Sunday and Manchester United collected a third straight win under new manager Michael Carrick.

Villa played for more than half the match with an extra man after Brentford winger Kevin Schade’s straight red card for kicking out at Matty Cash in the 42nd minute. In the first minute of first-half stoppage time, Dango Ouattara scored the only goal in Brentford’s 1-0 win.

Third-place Villa stayed seven points behind leader Arsenal, which beat Leeds 4-0 on Saturday, and was getting caught up by an improving United under Carrick.

Fresh off unexpected victories over Arsenal and Manchester City, United beat Fulham 3-2 thanks to a goal in the fourth minute of stoppage time by substitute Benjamin Sesko at Old Trafford.

United squandered a two-goal lead earned by goals from Casemiro and Matheus Cunha, with Raul Jimenez — via a penalty — and Kevin scoring to bring Fulham briefly level.

The match took place after a protest by around 500-600 United fans unhappy at the ownership of the 20-time champions, but the team is finally in a decent league position — fourth place — in its bid to return to the Champions League.

United is five points behind Villa with 14 rounds remaining.

Man City was playing away against Tottenham later.

Also Sunday, Crystal Palace — without star striker Jean-Philippe Mateta ahead of his possible move to AC Milan — drew 1-1 at 10-man Nottingham Forest, which had Neco Williams sent off in the 45th minute for a handball on the line.

___

Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Steve Douglas, The Associated Press

17
-16