Man Utd look to keep Reds at bay

Manchester, March 9: Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has the tough task of keeping Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah quiet as Jurgen Klopp’s entertainers roll into town at the weekend — with second place in the Premier League the prize on offer.

With Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City virtually assured of the title, northwest rivals United and Liverpool — the two most successful clubs in the English game — are left fighting for the scraps.

United’s impressive fightback from 2- 0 down on Monday to beat Crystal Palace 3- 2 maintained their slender two- point lead over Liverpool in the battle for the runners- up spot behind runaway leaders City.

Nemanja Matic bailed out Mourinho’s men with a stunning stoppage- time strike in London but another three points papered over the cracks in the latest in a series of unconvincing performances from United.

“We have to do more if we want to win as Liverpool are a team with great quality,” Matic said.

The onus will be on Mourinho to take the game to the visitors at Old Trafford on Saturday but the Portuguese manager, criticised for keeping his array of attackers firmly on the leash, is unlikely to risk throwing caution to the wind.

The match against Liverpool is the first of three games in eight days for United at Old Trafford that will define their season.

Elsewhere, Chelsea need to bounce back from four defeats in five league games if they are to retain any realistic hope of a top- four finish when they host struggling Palace and Tottenham must pick themselves up after being dumped out of the Champions League by Juventus at Bournemouth.

Arsenal, trailing fourthplaced Spurs by 13 points, look to have blown their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League but Arsene Wenger will be desperate to reverse an alarming slump when Watford visit the Emirates.