Better late than never
Liverpool and City win by the skin of their teeth
LONDON: Manchester City left it late to win. Liverpool left it even later.
The two teams leading the English Premier League each staged late comebacks to win 2-1 against unfavoured opponents on Saturday. The gap between leaders Liverpool and second-placed City stayed at six points, but only after some late drama.
For City, the hero was Kyle Walker, setting up one goal and scoring the winner against Southampton in the 86th minute.
For Liverpool, it was Sadio Mane with an assist for Andy Robertson in the 87th and a winning header against Aston Villa deep into stoppage time.
“We won, (but) Liverpool still won,” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
“When they win so many games in the last minute, it is because of special character. The first season we won with 100 points (in 201718), we won four or five games in the last minute.”
Before Southampton and Aston Villa had their dreams of a surprise win crushed, Bournemouth celebrated a 1-0 victory over a diminished Manchester United.
Liverpool’s players knew how close they came to losing their status as the only unbeaten team in the league, but they kept fighting.
Robertson said his team’s job was to force errors from Villa all the way to the final whistle. His charging run to the far post to meet Mane’s cross certainly wrongfooted Villa’s defence.
“We want to keep going, we want to win every match,” Robertson said. “If we do that or not, that’s another thing. We know we’ve got so many tough games ahead.”
Only one team have won the league unbeaten – Arsenal in 2004.
Before Liverpool’s comeback, it looked like the video assistant referee system might have decided the game.
VAR checks declared Villa’s Mahmoud “Trezeguet” Hassan onside for the opening goal, but ruled Roberto Firmino’s armpit was marginally offside when he put the ball into the net for Liverpool shortly after.
The lengthy review left Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp wondering whether the VAR officials needed extra time “to find a line where Bobby was offside.”
After 11 games, Watford remained the only team without a win in any of Europe’s five biggest leagues.
Elsewhere, Sheffield United earned their biggest win since returning to the league, beating Burnley 3-0 to rise to third in the table, thanks to two goals from John Lundstram. Sheffield are unbeaten in their last four games.
After strong early season form, West Ham’s slide continued with a 3-2 loss to Newcastle, their sixth game without a win, while Brighton returned to the top half of the table with a 2-0 win over Norwich. — AP