Trio fire Reds past 100 mark
The Liverpool forward line’s scoring prowess has not been diminished by Philippe Coutinho’s Barcelona move. For the second straight game, Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane all scored as Liverpool climbed to second in the English Premier League with a 4-1 home win over West Ham yesterday.
The Reds passed a century of goals for the season, Salah moved to 31 in all competitions — a joint-high 23 (with Tottenham’s Harry Kane) coming in the league — and Firmino continued the most efficient season of his career with a 22nd goal in 38 club appearances.
With Mane following up his hattrick against Porto in the Champions League last time out with another goal, Liverpool’s front three are hardly missing the individuality of Coutinho behind them two months after the Brazilian left for Spain.
“Flexibility, being fluent, depends on all the players around,” Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp said, highlighting the movement and work rate of his attackers.
“If you see how we change positions, Roberto immediately defends each moment for Mo. Sadio is doing the same. It’s really important.”
Liverpool, the only top six side to play yesterday, moved a point ahead of Manchester United, who hosted fourth-placed Chelsea overnight.
Only Manchester City (111), the leaders by 15 points, have more goals than Liverpool’s 103 in all competitions among English clubs.
The race to avoid relegation remains tight except for West Bromwich Albion, who face being cut adrift after losing at home to Huddersfield 2-1. West Brom are last by six points.
Loud boos rang around The Hawthorns at the final whistle after West Brom’s fifth straight loss in all competitions. There were chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” directed at manager Alan Pardew, who has won just one of 14 league games in charge since taking over in November from Tony Pulis.
“This was an opportunity to get us rolling, and of course we’ve let that slip,” said Pardew.
Rajiv van La Parra and Steve Mounie scored to put Huddersfield 2-0 ahead by the 56th minute. Craig Dawson replied with a header in the 64th minute for West Brom.
Southampton climbed out of the relegation zone. Manolo Gabbiadini scored a 90th-minute equaliser for Southampton in the 1-1 draw at Burnley after referee Bobby Madley inadvertently blocked off home midfielder Ashley Westwood to allow the Saints to break clear.
Burnley were fourth in December, but dreams of qualifying for Europe have diminished due to an 11-match winless run in the league.
Stoke stayed in the bottom three after a mistake by their goalkeeper. With his team 1-0 up, Jack Butland failed to hold Leicester winger Marc Albrighton’s cross, fumbling the ball into his net in the 70th minute.
Newcastle blew a two-goal lead with 10 minutes left to draw 2-2 at Bournemouth, while Watford beat Everton 1-0 with a 79th-minute goal by Troy Deeney. Brighton scored three goals in the last 20 minutes to beat Swansea City 4-1.
Rangers have moved to within six points of Scottish Premier League pacesetters Celtic with a 2-0 home win over Hearts.
Jamie Murphy’s 41st-minute goal gave Rangers the halftime advantage at Ibrox and Russell Martin wrapped up the victory with two minutes left. Celtic played at Aberdeen overnight.
Neil Lennon was sent to the stand as his Hibernian team let slip a 2-0 lead at Kilmarnock. Lennon was ordered off by Kevin Clancy after Kris Boyd netted on the rebound to earn Kilmarnock a 2-2 draw after a 61stminute penalty, awarded for a Ryan Porteous handball.
“It’s amateur, it’s Mickey Mouse stuff,” Lennon said of the refereeing.
— AP