In-form striker Daniel Sturridge scored his eighth goal in his last seven league games to give Liverpool a 1-0 Premier League victory over Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday.
The England international had scored the only goal of the game in Liverpool’s opening 1-0 win over Stoke City and he repeated the trick with a neatly taken 21st-minute effort.
Jose Enrique’s drilled pass from the left was dummied by Philippe Coutinho and Sturridge slipped between a pair of Villa defenders before rounding goalkeeper Brad Guzan to score.
Photo: Reuters
Villa’s best chance of an equalizer fell to Christian Benteke late on, but the his half-volley drew a fine full-length save from Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
“Second half, of course you expect a wee bit more pressure from them, and Simon made a couple of terrific saves. It was about the three points today and we got the three,” Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers told Sky Sports.
“Since January we’ve been getting better and better,” he said. “We’ll play better than we did today, but what’s important now is that the mentality in the group is to win, and win together.”
Elsewhere, Stoke came from behind to deny promoted Crystal Palace their first points of the season with a 2-1 win at the Britannia Stadium.
Marouane Chamakh side-stepped Robert Huth to put Palace ahead in the 31st minute with his first league goal since September 2011, but two goals in four second-half minutes from Charlie Adam and Ryan Shawcross gave Stoke the points in manager Mark Hughes’s first home game.
Robbie Brady’s 22nd-minute penalty was enough to secure Hull City a 1-0 win at home to Norwich City despite Yannick Sagbo’s first-half red card for an off-the-ball tussle with Russell Martin.
An 88th-minute goal from center-back Jose Fonte earned Southampton a 1-1 draw at home to Sunderland, who had taken a third-minute lead with a header from Emanuele Giaccherini.
Everton manager Roberto Martinez had to content himself with a 0-0 draw in his first competitive home game, as West Bromwich Albion claimed a point at Goodison Park.
Newcastle United once again left Arsenal target Yohan Cabaye out of their squad as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to West Ham United.
The Gunners won 3-1 at Fulham in the day’s early kick-off.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
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