Liverpool rise to the top with easy victory
● Liverpool regained top spot in the Premier League as goals from Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum and Mohamed Salah secured a comfortable 3-0 win over Bournemouth yesterday.
Back-to-back draws against Leicester and West Ham had seen Jurgen Klopp’s men usurped by Manchester City on goal difference in midweek.
But Liverpool took full advantage of their game in hand over the champions to open up a three-point lead and put the pressure back on City when they host Chelsea today.
Klopp had called on his side to enjoy the “excitement” of what promises to be a thrilling title race rather than being bogged down by the nerves of recent displays as they seek to end a 29-year wait to win the title.
And after Mane broke the deadlock midway through the first half to relieve any lasting tension around Anfield, Liverpool settled back into the stride that saw them win nine Premier League games in a row through November and December.
Manchester United breezed past Fulham with a 3-0 win. Paul Pogba opened the scoring with a strike from a tight angle, Anthony Martial doubled the lead less than 10 minutes later and Pogba made it 3-0 from the spot in the 65th minute.
United rolled to their 10th win in 11 games under caretaker boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Substitute Andre Gray scored a secondhalf winner as Watford beat Marco Silva’s troubled Everton 1-0 in the Premier League to heap pressure on their former manager.
Everton boss Silva’s first visit to Vicarage Road since being sacked by Watford last January ended with the home fans singing that he would suffer a similar fate at the Merseyside club after a run of three defeats in a stuttering campaign.
Forward Gray, who came on for midfielder Ken Sema after the break, latched on to Will Hughes’ cross from the right following a delicate layoff from Craig Cathcart to tap the ball into the net on 65 minutes.
Wilfried Zaha’s deflected goal earned Crystal Palace a 1-1 draw at home to fellow Londoners West Ham United.
It had looked as though Mark Noble’s 27th-minute penalty and Palace’s profligacy in front of goal would condemn Palace to a damaging loss in their bid to climb away from relegation trouble.
But Zaha eventually beat West Ham’s keeper Lucasz Fabianski with a shot that looped up off the boot of Issa Diop.
Arsenal returned to winning ways with a 2-1 victory over bottom side Huddersfield.
Alex Iwobi put them ahead in the 16th minute with a deflected shot. The visitors doubled their advantage through Alexandre Lacazette’s 10th league goal of the season a minute before half-time.
Sead Kolasinac put through his own net in stoppage time for Huddersfield’s goal.
In a dramatic finish Cardiff City beat Southampton 2-1, with two goals scored in injury time in a relegation battle.
Brighton and Hove Albion entertained Burnley in the late game.