Manchester United sinks to another low
Jose Mourinho chose his words carefully, and they proved to be as candid as they were concerning for Manchester United, off to its worst start to a Premier League. “Liverpool,” Mourinho said, “is a better team than us.” Liverpool’s 3-1 win over its great rival on Sunday was confirmation of that — although it still needed two strokes of luck to underline the gulf that has quickly grown between English soccer’s two grandest clubs.
Xherdan Shaqiri came off the bench and scored goals from deflected shots in the 73rd and 80th minutes to give Liverpool daylight in a match it dominated from the start at Anfield. In total, Liverpool had 36 shots to United’s six. United is one point above seventh-placed Wolverhampton and 11 behind fourth-placed Chelsea. Liverpool reclaimed its onepoint lead over Manchester City with nearly half the season gone. United, meanwhile, has 26 points — its lowest haul after 17 games since the 1990-91 season.
HAZARD ADAPTING WELL
Eden Hazard is settling fine into his new attacking role at Chelsea. Playing as a “false nine” for the second straight game, Hazard set up Pedro Rodriguez’s early goal and then scored himself for the first time since October to lead Chelsea to a 2-1 win at Brighton. The Belgian forward usually plays on the left wing, but is being deployed by Chelsea coach Maurizio Sarri in the centre of a mobile front three, between Pedro and Willian.
ARSENAL FALLS SHORT
Arsenal twice came from behind through goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and looked like it would preserve a 22-game undefeated streak in all competitions and an unbeaten run in the league stretching back to Aug. 18. But Danny Ings put Southampton ahead both times to record a 3-2 victory.
Arsenal stayed in fifth place, but is now three points behind Chelsea.