Mane double puts Liverpool back on track; Sanchez lifts Arsenal gloom
LONDON (Reuters) – Liverpool belatedly kick-started its year and damaged Tottenham Hotspur’s slender Premier League title hopes as Sadio Mane struck both goals in a 2-0 victory at Anfield on Saturday.
Second-placed Tottenham had the chance to cut Chelsea’s lead at the top to six points ahead of its trip to Burnley on Sunday, but it was swept aside before halftime by a vibrant Liverpool side which had failed to win in the league in 2017.
Mane, whose absence at the African Nations Cup coincided with Liverpool’s slump, scored in the 16th and 18th minutes and only Tottenham keeper Hugo Lloris prevented the Senegalese completing a first-half hat-trick as the visitors buckled.
“The reaction was perfect, it was an outstanding performance offensively in the first half and defensively in the second,” Liverpool boss Juergen Klopp, whose side has crashed out of both domestic cups and fallen off the pace in the league, said.
Surprisingly beaten by struggling Hull City and Swansea City already this year, Liverpool once again showed that against the top sides this season it is a match for anyone.
In its matches against other members of the top six this season it has won four and drawn four.
Tottenham, unbeaten in its last nine league matches and with only two previous league defeats all season, could have been four or five goals down inside the opening half hour.
With Tottenham’s defense wide open Mane put Liverpool ahead when he ran onto Georginio Wijnaldum’s pass and held off Ben Davies to scoop a shot past Lloris.
Two minutes later he fired home a rebound after Lloris had denied Adam Lallana and Roberto Firmino in quick succession.
Mane was then twice denied by Lloris as Liverpool made a mockery of its supposed lack of confidence.
Simon Mignolet had to make one good save to deny Son Heung-Min but was largely untroubled as Liverpool cruised to victory.
Tottenham has now failed to win its last nine league matches against Liverpool, losing six, and its meek surrender left manager Mauricio Pochettino critical of his team.
While Chelsea can go 12 points clear on Sunday, Liverpool is right back in the mix in the battle for the top four.
Victory lifted Liverpool back into fourth spot with 49 points from 25 games, one behind second-placed Tottenham and third-placed Arsenal.
Earlier, Arsenal put two Premier League defeats – and days of uncertainty about manager Arsene Wenger – behind it to post a workmanlike 2-0 victory over Hull City that lifted it above Manchester City into third place.
With none of the other top four teams playing on Saturday afternoon, Manchester United beat Watford 2-0 to move ahead of Liverpool in fifth place and Southampton’s new striker Manolo Gabbiadini scored twice in their 4-0 thumping of Sunderland.
However welcome Arsenal’s victory was, it owed much to luck after a controversial handball goal from Alexis Sanchez and did little to lift the mood at the Emirates where Wenger was non-committal about his future.
The game turned on Sanchez’s 34th-minute opener when the ball went into the net inadvertently off the Chilean’s hand after popping up from a goalline save by the keeper.
Sanchez’s second also came via a goalline handball, this time from Hull’s Sam Clucas in stoppage time, which led to a penalty and sending-off. Sanchez’s spot-kick took his tally to 17 goals in 25 league games, including four against Hull.
When Wenger, who watched the game from the stands after completing a four-match touchline ban, was asked about his future, he said: “I focus on what is important, winning football games and getting the team to perform. The rest, I cannot influence.”