Man Utd hold Liverpool to stay top
Leicester jump to 2nd as Spurs down Sheffield Utd
LIVERPOOL, England, Jan 17, (AP): Manchester United stayed top of the Premier League after drawing 0-0 on Sunday with Liverpool and extending the champion’s winless run to four matches.
Liverpool haven’t gone as long without a win since 2017, but Jürgen Klopp’s team still maintained their unbeaten record at Anfield since the same year thanks to Alisson Becker’s late saves from Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba.
“We had two great chances and two great saves,” United captain Harry Maguire said. “It was cagey but it was two good teams matching up. We found it difficult in the first half to get a rhythm to the game, the press was high.”
SOCCER
Thiago Alcantara’s long-range effort was well saved by United goalkeeper David De Gea in the 78th minute as Liverpool failed to score for a third successive match.
Liverpool, which had a makeshift defense due to injuries, stayed three points behind United, which are chasing their first title since 2013.
Spurs 3, Sheffield Utd 1
Tanguy Ndombele’s audacious hooked shot completed Tottenham’s 3-1 victory at Sheffield United , giving Jose Mourinho’s side a first away success in the Premier League in two months.
Played in by a Steven Bergwijn chipped pass, Ndombele used the outside of his boot to lob goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and the ball landed in the far corner.
It restored Tottenham’s two-goal cushion in the 62nd minute after David McGoldrick glanced home John Fleck’s cross three minutes earlier for
the last-place team.
Tottenham needed only five minutes to go ahead. Bergwijn saw his strike tipped over by Ramsdale and Serge Aurier headed in from Son Heungmin’s resulting corner.
After Son hit the post, Tottenham eventually got their second in the 40th through Harry Kane’s 12th goal of the
league campaign. The striker received the ball from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, then turned and drilled a low shot into the corner from the edge of the area. Leicester 2 , Southampton 0 Leicester climbed to second place by beating Southampton 2-0, with James Maddison marking his opening goal with a humorous solo celebration
to follow new pandemic protocols urging players to stop hugging and kissing.
After running onto Youri Tielemans’ pass and smashing home a rising shot into the roof of the net in the 37th minute, Maddison turned to face his approaching teammates and - with a broad smile on his face - waved them
away before applauding himself repeatedly.
“If little things like that are what we need to keep football going, then so be it,” Maddison said. “We have been told to stop gatherings of people and I tried to make it light-hearted.
“Footballers, we get a lot of stick and it’s nice to put a lighter note on it.”
Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in England because of a new variant, the Premier League has warned clubs that punishments will be handed out for flouting the rules when it comes to celebrations. Some have questioned whether football should continue to be played in the circumstances.
Harvey Barnes netted the second goal in the fifth and final minute of second-half stoppage time at King Power Stadium, running in behind Southampton’s defense to slot home a finish at the end of a counterattack.
Leicester again looks like challenging for the Champions League qualification spots like last year when the team fell short in the final weeks after looking like a lock in the top four.
“It’s nice to be second in the table,” Maddison said, “but last year we petered off in the new year so the next few months will be tough.”
Chelsea 1, Fulham 0
Four months into the season and Chelsea manager Frank Lampard appears no closer to knowing his best lineup following a $300 million offseason spending spree that delivered him a squad bursting with quality.
One player he knows he cannot do without is Mason Mount.
The England international looked to be the man with the most to lose coming out of a summer when Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner arrived at Stamford Bridge at great expense to add competition to the attacking midfield and forward spots.
But there was Mount, starting for Chelsea for the 12th straight English Premier League game - he has played 90 minutes in all of them - and grabbing a badly needed winner for Lampard against Fulham at Craven Cottage.