No easing up by the champions
MAN CITY’S 100 POINTS TALLY WELL WITHIN RANGE
Juergen Klopp hailed Liverpool’s desire not to ease up after clinching the Premier League title as two goals from Mohamed Salah kept the Reds on course for a record points tally with a 3-1 win at Brighton on Wednesday.
The champions move onto 92 points with three wins from their final four games enough to break Manchester City’s record of 100 points from two seasons ago.
“We are champions and it could be softening but it is not – the boys go with everything,” said Klopp.
“We now have 92 points and last season we had 97! We got five points more than this last season – that’s unbelievable, I have no idea how we did that.”
Klopp’s men were quick off the mark with two goals in the first eight minutes to end a run of five games without a goal away from home either side of the coronavirus shutdown.
Brighton’s desire to play out from the back has been one of the hallmarks of Graham Potter’s first season in charge and the Seagulls look certain to meet their target of staying in the division with a nine-point cushion over the bottom three.
But the hosts were twice caught out by Liverpool’s press to leave themselves too much to do despite another promising performance.
“I saw two very good football teams tonight, both trying to play football,” added Klopp. “They had a brave formation and set up but we had a super solution for that. Our high press was outstanding.”
Salah remained in the hunt for a third Golden Boot in as many seasons at Liverpool as he slotted home Naby Keita’s cross to open the scoring.
Two minutes later the Reds robbed possession again in the Brighton half and Jordan Henderson curled home a brilliant shot into the far corner but later limped off with a knee injury.
Brighton got their reward just before half-time when Leandro Trossard connected with Tariq Lamptey’s cross to halve the deficit. – AFP