Champions Manchester City slipped to a shock first Premier League defeat of the season at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, while Manchester United's campaign of woe continued with a loss to Crystal Palace.
There were no such troubles for Arsenal who closed the gap to leaders City to one point with a rampant 4-0 win at Bournemouth and newly-promoted Luton Town earned their first success of the season at Everton.
United slumped to their fourth loss of the Premier League season as an early Joachim Andersen strike gave Palace a 1-0 win at Old Trafford.
Having tasted defeat in their previous home league match, against Brighton & Hove Albion, the below-par hosts again found themselves behind in the 25th minute when Andersen arrowed into the top corner.
With plenty of time to find a leveller on home turf, clear-cut chances remained few and far between in the Manchester rain, with Palace goalkeeper Sam Johnstone enjoying a quiet afternoon and boos ringing around the stadium upon the final whistle.
With nine points and a minus four goal difference, this is 10th-placed Manchester United's worst-ever start to a Premier League season after seven games. The last time they suffered a worse start to a top-flight campaign was in 1989-90, in the old First Division.
"When we play at home or away and we play Crystal Palace, we have to win," coach Erik ten Hag said. "With all respect, I know every game is very difficult, you have to play your best and I understand fans expecting a win and we didn't win. We lost."
CITY COME UNSTUCK
United's rivals City had been having no such bad luck this term and made the trip to Wolverhampton having won all six of their opening league games.
However, a Ruben Dias own goal put Wolves 1-0 up in the 13th minute, Pedro Neto's cross deflected in off the Portuguese player's knee, but Julian Alvarez levelled the score with a bending free kick past Jose Sa in the 58th.
Hwang Hee-chan restored the home side's lead on the counter-attack and against the run of play in the 66th by firing into the net from close range after a Matheus Cunha pass found him unmarked, a strike which proved to be the winner.
Having been beaten at Newcastle United in midweek in the League Cup, City have lost back-to-back games in all competitions for the first time since January last season; they had lost only two of their 41 matches prior to this.
"We were well set up but we did not defend properly these situations. They beat us in the one versus one and that is not good and we have to do it properly," City coach Pep Guardiola said.
"We have to do more but even when we win we have to do more."
Spurs sink nine-man Liverpool
Tottenham Hotspur left it late to down nine-man Liverpool 2-1 and had an own goal by Joel Matip to thank for their stoppage-time win as the defender turned the ball home to leave Spurs second in the Premier League behind Manchester City on Saturday.
Juergen Klopp's Liverpool side had gamely battled to try to take home a point after Cody Gakpo cancelled out Son Heung-min's opener with the visitors having Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota sent off in a feisty clash that was played at an electric pace.
Spurs took the lead in the 36th minute through Son, 10 minutes after Jones was sent off for a crunching tackle on midfielder Yves Bissouma, before Gakpo equalised just before halftime with a smart shot on the turn in the box.
The Dutch midfielder was injured in scoring though and did not come out for the second period, with Jota replacing him, but the Portuguese forward was dismissed in the 69th after a second yellow card and Liverpool held out until Matip's own goal.
Tottenham's victory puts them in second spot on 17 points along with third-placed Arsenal and both teams are now a point behind Manchester City who lost at Wolverhampton Wanderers. The defeat leaves Liverpool in fourth position on 16 points.
"Another challenge for us today," Spurs unbeaten manager Ange Postecoglou told the BBC. "We had to cope with a fair few things and show a different side of our game today. Second half I thought we were really good."
It was Tottenham's first win over Liverpool since 2017 after one victory against them in their previous 21 league games but they made hard work of it after the visitors went down to nine men.
Spurs are making a habit of winning games in the dying minutes under Postecoglou though, having scored twice deep into stoppage time to beat Sheffield United 2-1 in their last home game, and Saturday's affair was no less dramatic.
It started with Liverpool putting the hosts under pressure and Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario had to pull off a brilliant double save to keep out Gakpo and then Andy Robertson as the Reds applied the early pressure on the Londoners.
The game changed when Jones's late tackle on Bissouma left the Tottenham midfielder nursing a sore ankle and although referee Simon Hooper allowed play to continue he was soon told by VAR to view the pitchside monitor and produced a red card.
Nevertheless, Liverpool thought they had taken the lead through Luis Diaz who got behind the defence and fired into the bottom corner past Vicario. However, the goal was ruled out by the referee for offside much to Klopp's disgust.
The referees' body, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) later admitted it was the wrong decision to disallow Diaz's effort, blaming human error, and "should have resulted in the goal being awarded through VAR intervention".
"The offside goal. That is not offside when you see it, they drew their lines wrong. It is so tough to deal with it," Klopp told Sky Sports. "I never saw a game like this with the most unfair circumstances, crazy decisions."
Having had a lucky escape, Spurs then opened the scoring through Son after James Maddison played a defence-splitting pass through to Richarlison who squared the ball into the box for the South Korean to net his sixth league goal this season.
Richarlison then hit the post as Tottenham looked for a second goal but Gakpo equalised before halftime when he turned and fired home after Virgil van Dijk headed a Dominik Szoboszlai cross back into the box before being replaced at halftime.
Jota then got his marching orders after two bookings in quick succession and Liverpool were really up against it, with goalkeeper Alisson Becker making superb saves to keep out a trademark Maddison curler and Son's fierce strike.
They held out until central defender Matip fired the ball into the roof of his own net in the sixth minute of added time trying to cut out a Pedro Porro cross. The deflated visitors then sank to their knees after another late, late show by Spurs.
ARSENAL CLOSE IN
Arsenal maintained their unbeaten start to the season on the south coast as Kai Havertz opened his account for the London club and Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White also scored.
Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, who have yet to concede away from home this season, climbed to second with 17 points, one behind the champions.
Andoni Iraola's winless Bournemouth side dropped into the relegation zone and are 18th with three points from seven games.
Luton have had to wait seven games to get their first Premier League victory that helped them move out of the bottom three.
Everton created 23 chances, but only five of them were on target, as Luton keeper Thomas Kaminski enjoyed his quietest game since his side were promoted back to the top flight.
Boos rang around the ground at the final whistle as Everton's lack of scoring prowess allowed the visitors to hang on for a historic win that lifted them to 17th in the table on four points.
The success was Luton's first away victory in the top tier in 30 such games since a 2-1 success at Aston Villa in March 1991.
Villa enjoyed a more successful afternoon on Saturday as an Ollie Watkins hat-trick inspired them to a 6-1 thrashing of Brighton & Hove Albion that moved them up to fourth in the standings, three points behind leaders City.
Newcastle United also continued their winning streak with a 2-0 victory over Burnley, while West Ham United beat Sheffield United 2-0 at London Stadium.
Tottenham were hosting Liverpool in Saturday's late game.
