Manchester City’s perfect start to the Premier League season came undone in a shock 2-1 loss to Wolves, as Manchester United slumped to a 1-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Arsenal closed to within a point of the lead by cruising to a 4-0 win at Bournemouth, while Aston Villa thrashed Brighton 6-1 to move into the top four.
City had won the opening six games of their title defence as they aim to become the first side to ever claim four consecutive English top-flight titles.
By contrast, Wolves had taken just four points from their first six games but stunned the champions at Molineux.
Ruben Dias’ own goal put the home side in front, but City responded after the break through Julian Alvarez’s free-kick.
Wolves, though, were a constant threat on the counter-attack and got their reward when Hwang Hee-Chan swept home at the second attempt 25 minutes from time.
City’s defeat means Liverpool can go top should they end Tottenham’s unbeaten Premier League start under Ange Postecoglou in the 1615GMT kick off.
United have now lost four of their opening seven league games of the season to pile more pressure on Erik ten Hag.
Joachim Andersen’s stunning first-half volley separated the sides at Old Trafford.
United had won a League Cup meeting between the sides 3-0 in midweek.
But with Palace restored to full strength, the Red Devils suffered from a familiar lack of cutting edge up front as they laboured to get back into the game.
Defeat sees United slip to 10th in the table.