Alisson praises Liverpool’s ‘passion and intensity’

LIVERPOOL’S fighting spirit and never-say-die attitude helped them claim their comeback 2-1 Premier League win over Crystal Palace, goalkeeper Alisson said.

Mohamed Salah netted his 200th goal for Liverpool to cancel out Jean-Philippe Mateta’s spot-kick, before Harvey Elliott scored a stoppage-time winner to seal the three points.

Liverpool, who top the standings on 37 points from 16 games, have made a habit of scoring late goals in recent weeks, with strikes from Trent Alexander-Arnold earning a draw against champions Manchester City and a 4-3 win over Fulham.

“We plan before the games for that — to start well, to stay well and to finish well,” Alisson said on Saturday.

“But this is football, it’s an unpredictable game and sometimes everything that you are doing doesn’t work for many reasons and you don’t have time during the game to discover what is going wrong.

“You have to change quickly in mind and sometimes it’s about passion as well. We had that at the end of the game, the last 20 minutes, a lot of passion from our players, a lot of intensity and we never gave up. We were rewarded for that with scoring two goals.”

Liverpool’s title credentials face a tough test in December, with their next two league games pitting them against Manchester United and Arsenal.

“We know that we have big challenges now in December, big opponents,” Alisson said.

“But in the Premier League, all the games are important, they have the same value. What matters is the passion that you put into the games. And the next challenge that we have in front of us is the most important, so we go for that.”

Meanwhile, Aston Villa beat Arsenal 1-0 for a 15th straight home league win to stop the Gunners retaking first place.

Storm clouds returned to Manchester United as they lost 3-0 at home to Bournemouth. Bottom club Sheffield United beat visiting Brentford 1-0 for only their second win of the season while fellow strugglers Burnley and Nottingham Forest both drew.

Aston Villa’s captain John McGinn scored in the seventh minute and they held on to beat Arsenal three nights after they shocked champions Manchester City by the same scoreline at Villa Park in what McGinn called a “monumental week.”

Their 15th successive home win set a club record.

Liverpool lead the standings on 37 points, a point above second-placed Arsenal with Villa up to third on 35. City, who visit lowly Luton Town on Sunday, have 30 points.

“I’m feeling very, very good and very happy, we are connecting with our supporters and the positive energy transmits to us,” Villa manager Unai Emery said. “Today we needed it because we were tired after the game on Wednesday.”

“We were speaking about the necessity to keep a clean sheet against City and Arsenal, it is amazing to keep them.”

Arsenal thought they had equalised in added time before VAR determined Kai Havertz had handled the ball while firing it past keeper Emi Martinez from a goalmouth scramble.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta hesitated to speak about the call, except to say it was “clear and obvious.”

Manchester United had earlier put in a shambolic display against Bournemouth at a soggy Old Trafford.

Any hope of Erik Ten Hag’s side following up a midweek win over Chelsea never looked likely as they were outplayed by the south coast club who posted a first win away to United thanks to goals by Dominic Solanke, Philip Billing and Marcos Senesi.

United remain in sixth place but they are now 10 points behind Liverpool after a fourth home defeat in the league this season. After a must-win Champions League game against Bayern Munich, United travel to Liverpool next weekend.

Chris Wilder’s return to Sheffield United in midweek after Paul Heckingbottom’s sacking began with a 2-0 home defeat by Liverpool but he got off the mark with victory over Brentford.

James McAtee, on loan from Manchester City, curled in the only goal in first half stoppage time and Brentford never really looked like depriving the Blades of a morale-boosting win.

“We were a little off it but the goal gave us a boost and second half what really pleased me is we could have sat off but we pushed on and kept being brave,” Wilder said.

Sheffield United stay bottom with eight points, level with Burnley who were denied a win at Brighton & Hove Albion.

Wilson Odobert’s deflected shot gave Burnley the lead but Simon Adingra’s second-half header earned Brighton a draw.

Nottingham Forest now have only one win in 12 league games but fans sang the name of under-pressure manager Steve Cooper throughout the 1-1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Forest made a fast start and Harry Toffolo scored his first goal for the club, rising to meet a superb delivery by Neco Williams to give them the lead in the 14th minute.

But Wolves responded and Matheus Cunha finished off a flowing move after 32 minutes.