Salah rediscovers scoring touch in Liverpool romp
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah netted his first league goal since August 25 as the Reds thrashed Southampton 3-0 to make it six Premier League wins out of six and leapfrog Chelsea atop the table on Saturday.
An own goal by Wesley Hoedt started the visitors’ misery in the 10th minute as Xherdan Shaqiri’s shot hit Shane Long before bouncing into the net off the Saints Dutch defender and Joel Matip made it two with a header from a corner 11 minutes later.
Liverpool’s Egypt forward Salah, who had failed to score in his last two league games, bundled home a Shaqiri free kick that came back off the woodwork in first-half stoppage time for his third goal of the season.
Southampton failed to mount a meaningful comeback after the break and the result leaves them languishing in mid-table, while Liverpool’s perfect record puts them top on 18 points, two ahead of Chelsea who visit West Ham United on Sunday.
CITY ROAR BACK
CARDIFF: Manchester City gave a ruthless response to their European flop as Riyad Mahrez’s double capped a 5-0 demolition of Cardiff on Saturday. A 2-1 home defeat against Lyon in the Champions League on Wednesday left critics questioning whether City were suffering a dip in form. But Pep Guardiola’s side gave an emphatic reply with their biggest win and most dominant display of the season in south Wales.
UNITED HELD
MANCHESTER: Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw at home to promoted Wolverhampton Wanderers at Old Trafford, leaving them eight points adrift of league leaders Liverpool.
Jose Mourinho’s side, who had won their last two league games, took the lead in the 18th minute through Brazilian midfielder Fred, who drove home after a sublime short pass from Paul Pogba.
Wolves had looked nothing like a promoted team, playing confident and composed football and they got their reward with a finely worked goal. Helder Costa got past Luke Shaw and slipped the ball back to Raul Jimenez who perfectly teed up Joao Moutinho to fire into the top corner.
DJOKER-FEDERER LOSE
CHICAGO: Team Europe took a commanding 3-1 lead over Team World in the Laver Cup on Friday despite seeing their highprofile doubles pairing of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic suffer the defending champions’ only defeat of the first day here. Jack Sock and Kevin Anderson combined to deliver the sole triumph for their side, overcoming the world’s second and third ranked singles players 6-7(5), 6-3, 10-6 to prevent an opening day shutout for Team Europe.
WAWRINKA GOES DOWN
STPETERSBURG:Slovakia’s Martin Klizan battled back from a set down to beat Stan Wawrinka on Saturday and reach the Saint Petersburg Open final.
Klizan, the 2012 champion here, won 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in two hours and 16 minutes to chalk up his first win over the 33-year-old Wawrinka in their fourth headto-head meeting.