Liverpool strive to regain control
PREMIER LEAGUE With Man City facing Chelsea next day, Reds aim to go top of the standings with win over Bournemouth
LIVERPOOL: Ten days after blowing the chance to move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, Liverpool return to Anfield trailing Manchester City in the table when Bournemouth visit Merseyside on Saturday.
After posting a perfect record of 16 straight wins against opposition outside the top six to start the season, back-to-back 1-1 draws against Leicester and West Ham have opened the door to City and third-placed Tottenham to prolong Liverpool’s 29-year wait to win the title.
Only Manchester United can boast more league titles than Liverpool’s 18, but Jurgen Klopp’s men must find a way of harnessing the desperation to end a drought of nearly three decades positively, rather than letting the nerves of what promises to be a thrilling run-in become a hindrance.
Tension is already apparent in the stands as much as on the pitch after the unexpected slipups of the past week.
“You get that feeling as well from the crowd and I think it’s not really necessary at the moment,” said t al i smanic defender Virgil van Dijk after the f i r s t o f t hose poi nt s were dropped at home to Leicester.
“Obviously everyone wants to win so bad and that’s what we want as well but sometimes you need to be very patient.”
Klopp also admitted after being held at West Ham on Monday that his side need to “enjoy” the ride rather than fearing the consequences of missing out.
“It’s not about pressure, it’s about enjoying the situation you are in,” said Klopp.
And Liverpool could hardly have asked for better visitors to try and right the ship as Bournemouth have lost all of their last seven away games in the Premier League stretching back to October.
‘FORGET PSG FOR NOW’
MANCHESTER: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has warned his Manchester United players against looking ahead to a blockbuster Champions League clash Paris Saint-germain and focus on cont i nuing t heir f i ne Premier League form at Fulham on Saturday. The visit to Craven Cottage comes three days before the first leg of the last-16 meeting with the French champions at Old Trafford. That game kicks off a run of three huge matches in 13 days for United with an FA Cup fifth-round trip to Chelsea and a Premier League home match against Liverpool completing the sequence.
Seven wins and a draw in eight league matches since Solskjaer became caretaker manager on December 1 9 have revived United’s chances of a top-four finish.
“Of course you take one step at a time and that’s one of the goals we’ve set - that we move into the top four. And if we do so, we want to stay there and improve on that,” said the Norwegian.
“Of course, t he past t wo months have been fantastic with the points we’ve got, so consistency is now the key word, that we keep on winning games but in a better way than say the Leicester one. I felt that we hung on. It was good enough but we shouldn’t be happy with just good enough.
“We want to improve. The Fulham game coming up is a character revealer. Do we have the focus on what’s important, which is always the next game in football? And can we forget about PSG and all the games coming up?
“I know the focus around the place and in the media has been about the PSG game for a long time, and Chelsea and Liverpool, but they’re not the games that will move us up the table.”
ARSENAL LOOK TO CURE TRAVEL SICKNESS
LONDON: Unai Emery insists he won’t be affected by growing criticism of his Arsenal reign as the misfiring Gunners bid to get back on track at Huddersfield on Saturday.
Emery’s side head to Huddersfield confident they can use the Premier League’s bottom club as a cure for travel sickness that has seen them fail to win outside the Emirates Stadium in that competition since November 25.
“My first critic is always myself,” Emery said. “I work over the criticism of me because I know that work in the present can change our way.
“We have the possibility and the opportunity to get into the top four, but we know it’s not easy. One month ago, we were in the same situation. We are strong at home but we need to do better away.”