Liverpool continued their convincing push for the Premier League title as a Mohamed Salah double saw them repel a severe challenge from Crystal Palace to win 4-3 at Anfield and stretch their lead at the top to seven points.
Arsenal dented Chelsea’s increasingly fragile title pursuit with a 2-0 derby win, while Manchester United continued their stirring revival under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a 2-1 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion.
Yet, it was Liverpool’s pulsating win over their “bogey” side that had the most significant feel as Juergen Klopp’s men showed real steel to subdue Palace, with Salah’s brace taking him to 50 league goals in 72 matches.
Photo: AFP
Andros Townsend gave the Eagles a first-half lead, but Salah and Roberto Firmino struck after halftime only for dogged Palace to equalize with a James Tomkins header.
Salah then extended his league-leading tally to 16 goals, gifted by an error by Palace’s recalled 39-year-old goalkeeper Julian Speroni — the league’s oldest participant this season — leaving Klopp to hail the Egyptian’s 50-goal landmark as “an exceptional achievement from a world-class player.”
Even after James Milner was sent off for a second yellow card and Sadio Mane made it 4-2, Palace pulled one back through Max Meyer and Klopp felt it was a “massive relief” to extend their unbeaten league home run to 32 matches.
It left Liverpool on 60 points from 23 games, seven clear of Manchester City, who were left to play catch-up again yesterday with a match at bottom club Huddersfield Town.
“Nobody should be surprised by the character of the boys,” Klopp said. “The boys are ready to fight for all. It was not the first moment we had to show it, but it was pretty special.”
At Old Trafford, Solskjaer broke the great Matt Busby’s club record by winning his first six league matches in charge — and seven in all competitions — as the Norwegian’s 100 percent start continued with first-half goals from Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford.
Manchester United had to work hard to eke out the win after Pascal Gross narrowed the deficit.
Solskjaer equaled the longest winning streak by a manager from the beginning of his reign at a club in the Premier League era: six, by Carlo Ancelotti for Chelsea in 2009 and by Pep Guardiola for Man City in 2016.
The win pushed United to sixth on 44 points, level with rejuvenated Arsenal, who closed the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea to three points with first-half goals from Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny at the Emirates Stadium.
At the other end of the table, Newcastle United leapfrogged Cardiff City to push the Welsh club back into the relegation zone after a 3-0 win at St James’ Park that featured a double from Fabian Schar, his first goals for the club.
Molineux also witnessed a seven-goal thriller, with Diogo Jota scoring a stoppage-time winner for Wolverhampton Wanderers to complete his hat-trick and earn a 4-3 victory over Leicester City in one of the league’s best games of the season.
After captain Wes Morgan’s late header looked to have earned the Foxes a 3-3 draw, Jota’s clincher made Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo race onto the pitch to celebrate with his players, but he was promptly sent off.
Southampton also eased their relegation fears under their inspiring new manager Ralph Hasenhuettl, holding on for a deserved 2-1 win over Everton at St Mary’s.
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