Four-goal Liverpool’s red-letter day
LIVERPOOL stretched their unbeaten home run in the Premier League to 16 games and provisionally climbed one place up to second after yet another devastating performance at Anfield yesterday gave them a 4-1 win over West Ham United.
The irrepressible Mohamed Salah scored his 31st goal in all competitions after setting up Emre Can’s opener and Roberto Firmino made it 3-0 before substitute Michail Antonio pulled one back in an action-packed encounter.
Can headed Liverpool into a 29th-minute lead after Salah swung in a corner and the Egyptian doubled the advantage in the 51st when he drilled an unstoppable shot into the far corner from 10 metres past the wrong-footed Adrian.
Firmino added the third six minutes later as he rounded the West Ham keeper and Sadio Mane scored Liverpool’s fourth with a simple tap-in after Antonio had given visiting fans something to cheer about with his first touch of the ball.
Former Newcastle United midfielder Dan Gosling delivered a last-gasp equaliser against his former side to complete an astonishing Bournemouth comeback in a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Vitality Stadium.
Gosling popped up in the box to divert Nathan Ake’s pass into the net in the 89th minute after Adam Smith had given the home side hope with a rocket of a shot to wrong foot the Newcastle goalkeeper on 80 minutes.
The visitors had been cruising towards successive league wins for the first time since September after Dwight Gayle ended his 14-game goal drought by scoring twice before the interval. His first was a cheeky back-heel to convert a cross by former Newcastle striker Matt Ritchie and his second a simple tap-in.
Glenn Murray’s double helped Brighton and Hove Albion to a crucial 4-1 victory over fellow relegation battlers Swansea City on the south coast .
Murray converted an 18th-minute penalty after being fouled by Mike van der Hoorn and took his league tally to 10 for the season after the break, slotting in Jose Izquierdo’s cutback.
Anthony Knockaert made it 3-0 and although Swansea did manage a late consolation thanks to Lewis Dunk’s own goal they were well beaten as Juergen Locadia completed the rout.
Southampton moved their heads just above the bottom three after Manolo Gabbiadini grabbed a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Burnle.
Burnley looked set to end a 10-match winless run in the league after Ashley Barnes headed them into the lead in the second half but Southampton dug out a crucial point.
Time was almost up at Turf Moor when Gabbiadini popped up in the area to turn home Guido Carrillo’s header back across goal.
An embarrassing own goal by Stoke City keeper Jack Butland gifted Leicester City an equaliser in a 1-1 draw at the King Power Stadium and denied Paul Lambert’s side a rare win on the road.
After Stoke took the lead through Xherdan Shaqiri’s third goal in successive league games just before the interval, Butland parried the ball into his net when under no obvious pressure from Marc Albrighton’s 70th-minute cross.
Although the keeper partly redeemed himself with a subsequent save from Riyad Mahrez, his glaring error meant Stoke remain in 19th place. – Reuters