Liverpool’s lead grows to 22 points in EPL
Leicester draw with Chelsea as Kepa dropped
LIVERPOOL, England, Feb 1, (AP): Mohamed Salah scored twice as Liverpool beat Southampton 4-0 to move 22 points clear at the top of the English Premier League on Saturday.
Liverpool stayed unbeaten after 25 games as they march toward a first championship title in 30 years.
With nearest rivals Manchester City playing at Tottenham on Sunday, Juergen Klopp’s side turned the screw even further with second-half goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – against his former club – Jordan Henderson and then Salah.
Seven more wins will guarantee winning the league and Liverpool has now won 24 of its 25 matches, with nine clean sheets in 10 games in the process.
Salah, Georginio Wijnaldum, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Trent AlexanderArnold all had shots blocked or saved but the biggest chance of the opening 45 minutes fell to Virgil Van Dijk, whose first touch killed Salah’s cross before his backheeled shot was saved.
Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy blocked and saved the followup from Roberto Firmino, although the Brazil international felt he should have had a penalty in the next phase of the attack when Shane Long appeared to pull him down almost on the goalline.
Referee Kevin Friend waved play on and VAR official Simon Hooper
Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino, (left), challenges Southampton’s goalkeeper Alex McCarthy during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Southampton at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, England, Feb 1.
(AP)
concurred. It was easy to see, however, why two-thirds of Saints’ points this season have come away from home as they pressed high and worked tirelessly to nullify Liverpool’s threat, both short and long, while waiting to pounce on any mistake.
They were presented with plenty of those in the first half, with Joe Gomez particularly slow in responding to threats and Firmino playing a 30-yard back pass to Danny Ings in the penalty area. The former Liverpool striker’s
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shot was blocked by the leg of teammate Long.
Since Southampton’s 9-0 home defeat to Leicester on Oct 25, only Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United have won more points than Ralph Hassenhuttl’s side (23 points from 14 matches) and the fact they outshot their hosts 10 to eight in the first half was an indicator of that form.
But Southampton were left to rue a number of opportunities in which they failed to properly test Alisson Becker, and teams visiting Anfield rarely get a second chance.
The turning point came early in the second half. Ings thought he should have had a penalty after stumbling through a challenge by Fabinho, who was making his first league start after injury since Nov. 23.
The visitors’ error was not to react quickly enough as Liverpool, as many teams have discovered to their considerable cost over the last couple of seasons, is at their most dangerous when opponents are on the offensive.
A counterattack down the left eventually saw Firmino pull the ball back to Oxlade-Chamberlain, who cut inside and drilled home a right-footed shot which had McCarthy rooted to the spot.
An energized Liverpool stepped things up and Salah had the ball in the net, only to be denied by an offside flag, although Ings continued to create problems until his substitution to a warm round of applause in the 70th minute.
By that time, the visitors were 2-0 down after Henderson calmly slotted the ball home on the hour mark.
Salah was not to be denied and, when Alisson picked out Henderson on the right wing, he slid in a pass for his teammate to dink over McCarthy, with the
Egypt international adding his second in a goalmouth scramble.
The win brought up 100 points from the last 102 available. With Liverpool unbeaten in the league in 394 days – and just less than three months short of three years at home in the competition - no wonder all four sides of Anfield were belting out “We’re going to win the league” at the end.
Leicester 2 Chelsea 2 In Leicester, Leicester maintained their eight-point cushion over fourthplace Chelsea in the race for Champions League qualification after the teams drew 2-2 in the Premier League, with all the goals coming in an action-packed second half.
Center back Antonio Rudiger scored two headers from set pieces for Chelsea, first putting the visitors in the lead in the 46th and then equalizing in the 71st.
In between, left winger Harvey Barnes scored with a deflected shot to make it 1-1 in the 54th and left back Ben Chilwell briefly gave Leicester the lead in the 64th.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard made a bold decision in dropping Kepa Arrizabalaga, the world’s most expensive goalkeeper, to the bench for the game after a series of unimpressive displays this season, with the Spaniard’s shot-stopping abilities, in particular, having been called into question.
Replacing him was Willy Caballero, who at 38 years, and 126 days became the oldest player to make a Premier League appearance this season.
Cabellero made a superb save in the first half from Jamie Vardy to keep the score level, but might have been at fault for Chilwell’s goal after racing out of his goal in an attempt to collect a deep cross. He had to retreat quickly back to his goal as Leicester reclaimed possession, and was flat-footed as Chilwell converted Youri Tielemans’ low cross to the back post. Barnes missed a clearcut late chance for Leicester after being played in by Vardy. Leicester stayed in third place and moved two points behind Manchester City, which are away to Tottenham on Sunday. Leicester is 15 points ahead of three teams
Sheff United 1 Palace 1 A goalkeeping error gave Sheffield United a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday, continuing a surprisingly strong season for the visitors in the English Premier League.
Promoted Sheffield took the lead in the 58th minute when Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita rose to catch the ball at a corner taken by Sheffield’s Oliver Norwood. Guaita leaped and caught it comfortably but took the ball over the goal line as he landed.
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