Shaqiri double lifts Liverpool
Jose Mourinho chose his words carefully, and they proved to be as candid as they were concerning for Manchester United as their worst start to a Premier League season hit a new low.
‘‘Liverpool is a better team than us,’’ Mourinho said.
Liverpool’s 3-1 win over their great rivals yesterday was confirmation of that – although it still needed two strokes of luck to underline the gulf that has quickly grown between English football’s two grandest clubs.
Xherdan Shaqiri came off the bench and scored goals from deflected shots in the 73rd and 80th minutes to finally give Liverpool daylight in a match they dominated from the start at Anfield. In total, Liverpool had 36 shots to United’s six.
Shaqiri’s intervention spared Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker from some of his embarrassment after the Brazil international gifted United their equaliser by fumbling a fairly tame cross from Romelu Lukaku into the path of Jesse Lingard in the 33rd minute.
That goal cancelled out the 24thminute opener from Sadio Mane.
Liverpool reclaimed their one-point lead over Manchester City with nearly half the season gone. United, meanwhile, are on 26 points – their lowest haul after 17 games since the 1990-91 season – and have a goal difference of zero.
Meanwhile, the drinks were on Ralph Hasenhuettl at St Mary’s Stadium. In a bid to raise spirits at the struggling south-coast club, their new Austrian coach sent drinks vouchers to all season ticket-holders ahead of the game against Arsenal. It wasn’t the only thing the Southampton fans were celebrating yesterday.
Charlie Austin’s 85th-minute goal sealed a 3-2 win that lifted Southampton out of the relegation zone with 17 of 38 matches gone. It was the first victory for Hasenhuettl since taking over from the fired Mark Hughes two weeks ago, and he greeted the final whistle by running onto the field and leaping into the air in delight.
Arsenal twice came from behind through goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and looked like preserving a 22-game undefeated streak in all competitions and an unbeaten run in the league stretching back to August 18 – a stretch of 14 games. Danny Ings put Southampton ahead both times.
Arsenal stayed in fifth place, but are now three points behind Chelsea, who beat Brighton 2-1 to stay eight points behind Liverpool.