Liverpool roar back; Mahrez lifts Foxes
Liverpool scored a goal in the fourth minute of injury time to beat Burnley 2-1 away in the Premier League, while Mark Hughes’ job as Stoke manager was looking increasingly fragile after the team’s loss at home to Newcastle on Monday.
Ragnar Klavan headed home the winning goal at Turf Moor as Liverpool earned a hard-fought victory without three of its “Fab 4” attack, with Roberto Firmino demoted to the bench and both Philippe Coutinho and Mohamed Salah declared injured. Sadio Mane was the only survivor and he scored Liverpool’s opening goal, spinning and shooting high into the net in the 61st minute. Johann Gudmundsson equalised in the 87th.
The win lifted Liverpool level on points with third-place Manchester United, which were to play at Everton in the late game Monday.
Salah was missing because of a groin problem while Liverpool said Coutinho had a thigh injury, a day after Nike’s website advertised Barcelona shirts with the Brazil midfielder’s name on the back to intensify speculation that he might be heading to the Spanish club.
Hughes rested many of his frontline players in the 5-0 loss at Chelsea on Saturday, in an attempt to keep them fresh for the game against Newcastle. It backfired with Stoke losing 1-0.
Meanwhile, Riyad Mahrez scored one and set up another as Leicester City strolled to a 3-0 win over Huddersfield Town in the Premier League on Monday.
In a tepid first half, Wilfred Ndidi came closest to scoring, but sliced wide from a good position after Islam Slimani had caused problems on his return to the side.
After the break, the game came to life, as Mahrez brilliantly volleyed home in the 53rd minute, before Slimani deftly added a second seven minutes later for his first league goal of the season.
Huddersfield had just one shot on target all match as they struggled to get going, while Leicester gave a run out to new signing Adrien Silva after he was given clearance to play. Marc Albrighton netted a late third to seal a victory that sees Leicester stay eighth, while Huddersfield remain 11th despite their first defeat in five.
Bournemouth, meanwhile, twice came from behind to draw a thrilling south coast derby with Brighton & Hove Albion 2-2 at the Amex Stadium in the first Premier League game of the year.
Bournemouth began the game in a precarious position five points worse off than last New Year’s Day. They got off to the worst possible start in the fifth minute when Brighton’s Anthony Knockaert rounded off a flowing move by squeezing the ball in at the far post for his second goal of the season. The goal was Brighton’s fastest ever in the Premier League. However, it was far from one-way traffic and both keepers were kept busy before Steve Cook equalised against the club where he began his career with a clever back-flick header from a corner on 33 minutes.
Glenn Murray also scored against his former side to restore Brighton’s lead at the start of the second half and the home side should have had a third when man of the match Jose Izquierdo shot instead of passed to Davy Propper, who was perfectly placed to score.