Record-chasing Reds get a hiding at Watford
● Liverpool’s amazing unbeaten run of success in this season’s Premier League was ended in unfathomable fashion yesterday as struggling Watford hammered the European champions 3-0 at their ecstatic Vicarage Road stadium.
Ismaila Sarr ignited the sensation, stunning Liverpool with two goals in six second-half minutes before he set up captain Troy Deeney with a third for the team who had started the day one from bottom, 55 points behind the runaway leaders.
Liverpool’s first league defeat of the season meant the end of their hopes of going the whole league campaign as unbeaten as the new “Invincibles” after 44 league matches without a defeat.
It also came on the evening they were expected to surpass champions Manchester City by creating a new English top-flight record of 19 successive league victories.
Chelsea’s erratic week ended with another topsyturvy affair as they eked out a dramatic 2-2 Premier League draw at struggling Bournemouth thanks to a double from their goal-hungry defender Marcos Alonso.
The Spanish full-back headed home from a rebound with the predatory instinct of a poacher five minutes from time to ensure Chelsea avoided a second miserable defeat in five days after their humbling Champions League home loss to Bayern Munich.
Chelsea’s quest to be in Europe’s top tournament next season, though, suffered a setback after Bournemouth responded to Alonso’s first-half goal with two in three second-half minutes from Jefferson Lerma and Josh King. Yet Alonso, who also scored in the Blues’ big win over Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, notched the leveller that meant fourth-placed Chelsea moved to 45 points, five behind third-placed Leicester City.
For Bournemouth, though, there could only be frustration at seeing a comeback victory snatched away on a day when fellow strugglers West Ham United leapt out of the bottom three with a 3-1 win over Southampton.
Hammers’ fans marched outside the London Stadium before the game, protesting at the club’s owners, but their mood was lightened as Jarrod Bowen marked his full debut with a fine goal. Southampton teenager Michael Obafemi equalised but the Hammers’ supremacy was underlined when Sebastien Haller and Michail Antonio got the goals to put West Ham 16th on 27 points.
Brighton & Hove Albion are still in a precarious 15th position as former England manager Roy Hodgson celebrated his 100th Premier League match in charge of Crystal Palace with a 1-0 win at the home of their rivals.
Jordan Ayew’s 70th-minute winner, against the run of play, left Brighton pondering serious difficulties.
Newcastle could get sucked into the relegation zone too if their strike force remains as blunt as it did in the 00 draw at home to Burnley, the fourth successive game in which they have failed to score. — Reuters