Haaland returns yet Man City stumbles to leave Champions League hopes in doubt

London: The long-awaited return of Erling Haaland couldn’t stop Manchester City from tumbling to another poor result in a season to forget for the deposed Premier League champion.

Indeed, after a dire 0-0 draw at already-relegated Southampton on Saturday, even qualification for the lucrative Champions League — something taken for granted by City for so many seasons — is still far from certain with two games left.

Failing to beat the Premier League’s last-placed team, and one of the worst to ever play in England’s top flight, threw City’s ambitions of a top-five finish back into doubt.Even more so with Aston Villa, one of a raft of clubs battling with City to get into the Champions League, beating Bournemouth 1-0 thanks to Ollie Watkins’ first-half goal.

It could barely be tighter in that race. Third-placed City moved two points clear of Newcastle and Chelsea — who meet at St. James’ Park on Sunday — and also sixth-placed Villa. Nottingham Forest is two points further back but also has a game in hand, at home to already-relegated Leicester on Sunday.

Six points separate Arsenal in second place and Forest in seventh. It seemed as if City turned the corner after a terrible run of results from November to February that knocked Pep Guardiola’s team out of contention for a fifth straight Premier League title as well as the Champions League.

Yet City was sluggish, Haaland barely got a chance and the recalled Phil Foden continued to look a shadow of the guy who was English football’s player of the year

last season.