Reds back on track with win
Liverpool returned to winning ways and the top of the Premier League table, while Manchester United climbed into fourth place on Saturday as English football paid tribute to the late Emiliano Sala.
First-half goals from Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum together with Mohamed Salah’s 48th-minute effort saw Liverpool to a 3-0 win over Bournemouth at Anfield.
Victory meant Liverpool, who had been second on goal difference, leapfrogged Manchester City by three points ahead of the reigning champions’ match at home to Chelsea on Sunday.
Meanwhile, United’s revival under caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continued with an equally comfortable 3-0 win away to Fulham.
Liverpool had dropped points in successive 1-1 draws against Leicester and West Ham, sparking suggestions they were losing their nerve in a quest to end the club’s 29year wait to be crowned champions of England once again.
Mane, however, eased the pressure with an early headed goal at Anfield.
Liverpool doubled their lead through Wijnaldum’s 34thminute lob before Salah’s curling shot sealed victory.
In London, Paul Pogba scored two goals – including a second-half penalty – either side of an Anthony Martial strike as United made it 10 wins in 11 games since former striker Solskjaer was put in temporary command.
Chelsea could regain a spot among the Champions League qualifying places against Manchester City.
But United, 11 points adrift of the top four when Jose Mourinho was sacked in December, are back in the hunt.
Arsenal inflicted more misery on Huddersfield with a 2-1 win away to the bottom-ofthe-table club.
Alex Iwobi and Alexandre Lacazette put Arsenal 2-0 up before halftime, with Sead Kolasinac’s own-goal too late for the Terriers.
Under-pressure Everton manager Marco Silva’s return to Watford ended in a 1-0 loss thanks to an Andre Gray goal.
An emotional week for Cardiff ended with a dramatic 2-1 win away to Southampton that saw them climb out of the relegation zone just days after the death of transfer-window signing Sala was confirmed without him having played a game for the Welsh club.
The Argentinian’s body was formally identified by an English coroner on Thursday, a day after it was recovered from underwater plane wreckage in the Channel.
Cardiff wore special shirts embroidered with a yellow daffodil, the national emblem of Wales and the team colour of French side Nantes, Sala’s former club, with a minute’s silence observed prior to kick off.
Burnley were in the relegation zone after Cardiff’s win, but moved three points clear in a 3-1 late kick-off win at Brighton, as Southampton were left in the bottom three.
London rivals Crystal Palace and West Ham drew 1-1.