Liverpool goes top as Man City beaten
LONDON: Liverpool has hit top spot in the English Premier League as a Mohamed Salah hattrick inspired it to a 40 win at Bournemouth yesterday, while champion Manchester City lost its unbeaten league record in a 20 defeat at Chelsea.
Salah took his Premier League goal tally to 10 this season as the Reds went one point ahead of City, which was undone by goals from N’Golo Kante and David Luiz at Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said Liverpool was happy to be on top but was focused only on itself.
‘‘We are not really interested in other teams,’’ he said.
Thirdplaced Tottenham moved to within six points of top spot — and remained two points ahead of fourthplaced Chelsea — thanks to a 20 win at Leicester.
Son Heungmin’s brilliant longrange leftfooted effort opened the scoring on the stroke of halftime and Dele Alli headed home a cross from the South Korean to make it two in the 58th minute.
Arsenal is level on points with Chelsea after a 10 win over Huddersfield.
Salah was back to his best as Liverpool equalled its clubrecord run of 17 unbeaten EPL matches.
The first goal had a touch of fortune about it as Salah followed up Roberto Firmino’s dipping shot to fire in the rebound, although TV replays suggested the Egyptian was marginally offside.
Salah shrugged off a defender to slip the ball home for his second three minutes into the second half.
Steve Cook turned in Andy Robertson’s cross to make it 30 on 68 minutes and Salah then added his third, twice rounding the goalkeeper before poking the ball home.
‘‘Top of the table and [to] score three goals, fantastic win today and a clean sheet,’’ Salah said.
City dominated possession and had more shots but was beaten by Chelsea’s first shot, through Kante on the stroke of halftime.
From Chelsea’s first corner on 78 minutes, Luiz headed home the second goal.
Arsenal needed a stunning bicycle kick by Lucas Torreira after 83 minutes to seal the win against Aaron Mooy’s valiant Huddersfield team.
Manchester United shrugged off a poor recent run as it beat bottom side Fulham 41.
Ashley Young (13th), Juan Mata (28th), Romelu Lukaku (42nd) and Marcus Rashford (82nd) scored the goals with Paul Pogba an unused substitute.
Burnley moved out of the bottom three after a 10 victory over Maty Ryan’s Brighton.
Cardiff edged further from danger with its own 10 win over struggling Southampton in Ralph Hasenhuettl’s first game in charge of the Saints while West Ham beat Crystal Palace 32. — DPA