Mourinho suffers more misery in the Magpies’ nest
Another stumble at St James’ Park for Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho. Another goal in an extraordinary season for Liverpool sensation Mohamed Salah.
With a surprising 1-0 loss to Newcastle yesterday, United ceded some of the initiative in the race for second place in the Premier League and left their manager cursing the “gods of football” on his latest fruitless trip to the northeast.
That’s seven league games without a win for Mourinho at Newcastle, six of which came as Chelsea coach.
Worse was to follow for Mourinho, with Liverpool winning 2-0 at Southampton to trim the gap to second-placed United to two points with 11 games left.
Salah was again the star turn, setting up Roberto Firmino before scoring himself to make it 22 goals in his debut season for Liverpool.
Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk was booed on his every touch on his first return to Southampton since moving to Liverpool in late December for US$100 million ($137m), making him the world’s most expensive defender.
“I enjoyed it today,” said the centreback who excelled.
It looks like being a four-way battle for the three Champions League qualification places behind champions-elect Manchester City, who retained their 16-point lead thanks to United’s slip-up.
Paul Pogba’s position in United’s team is up for debate after the arrival of Alexis Sanchez and the France international had another underwhelming match in centre midfield alongside Nemanja Matic.
Pogba lasted 66 minutes before being substituted, seconds after Matt Ritchie put the Magpies ahead. The Frenchman appeared to be feeling an injury in the warmup and was seen walking gingerly after the match, although Mourinho said there was no problem with the player.
Huddersfield collected their first league win in nearly two months by beating Bournemouth 4-1 to climb out of the relegation zone.
Striker Steve Mounie set up Alex Pritchard for the opening goal for Huddersfield and then scored himself after Junior Stanislas had equalised for Bournemouth.
A deflected shot from Mounie and a penalty from Rajiv van La Parra sealed the win. — AP