LONDON, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- Manchester City dropped to third place after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Leicester City in the English Premier League on Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola's men took an early lead through a Bernardo Silva at Leicester's King Power Stadium but the 2015 English champions fought back with goals from Marc Albrighton and Ricardo Pereira.
The champions also ended with just ten men following Fabian Delph's straight red card in the 89th minute.
City have lost four their last three league matches and have now slipped seven points behind leaders Liverpool and one point behind Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool stormed past Newcastle United 4-0 at Anfield and Tottenham demolished Bournemouth 5-0.
City dominated the game and in the 14th minute, Sergio Aguero spotted Silva's clever run and fed the ball to the Portuguese who calmly flicked it past Kapser Schmeichel.
The lead lasted just five minutes as Albrighton received a pass from Jamie Vardy inside the box and made no mistake from close range to level the scores. City continued to control the game in the second half but Leroy Sane's poor header in the 81st minute was punished with a spectacular finish from Ricardo.
Guardiola said afterwards : "We have to accept it, we have to realize that we have to work harder and try to get immediately one good result and get our confidence back.
"We are together, we will work harder and we will come back with some good results. The season is very long and we have lots to fight for.
Manchester City will play Southampton on December 30, before a home game against league leaders Liverpool on January 3.
Liverpool led 1-0 at half-time thanks to Dejan Lovren's powerful early strike, and Mohamed Salah's penalty doubled their advantage in the opening stages of the second half.
Xherdan Shaqiri made it three by rounding off a slick team move with 11 minutes remaining, before substitute Fabinho completed the scoring with his first Liverpool goal.
Christian Eriksen gave Tottenham a 1-0 lead at Wembley with a deflected goal on 16 minutes, South Korean super star Son Heung-Min made it 2-0 before Lucas Moura scored a third before halftime. Harry Kane's 12th league goal in the 61st minute extended the hosts' advantage while Son tapped home from close range to make it 5-0.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer won his first match at Old Trafford since taking over as Manchester United's caretaker manager last week as they beat bottom side Huddersfield.
Nemanja Matic scored the opener and Paul Pogba scored twice before Mathias Jorgensen swept home a consolation two minutes before time.
Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw at Brighton, who ended a run of three consecutive defeats.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang curled in the opening goal after just seven minutes but Brighton striker Jurgen Locadia rounded Bernd Leno to equalise on 35 minutes.
Eden Hazard scored twice to earn Chelsea a 2-1 victory at Watford to stand fourth place in the table.
The Belgian scored his 100th goal for Chelsea just before the interval but their lead only lasted two minutes until Roberto Pereyra volleyed past Kepa Arrizabalaga from the edge of the box. Hazard regained the lead in the second half when he converted a penalty.
Chelsea are 11 points behind leaders Liverpool, four behind Manchester City and two ahead of Arsenal.
Fulham were lifted off the bottom after drawing with Wolves 1-1 in the day's early game. Everton bounced back from their 6-2 defeat to Tottenham last weekend, beating Burnley 5-1. Crystal Palace played to a goalless draw with Cardiff City at South London's Selhurst Park.
