Liverpool falter against Southampton
Lovren strike ends Reds’ unbeaten start
LONDON: The wheels yesterday came off Liverpool’s bright start as Southampton won 1-0 at Anfield to inflict a first defeat of the season on the Premier League leaders.
Southampton defender Dejan Lovren scored with a second-half header to emphatically quieten the premature talk of a title push swirling around Merseyside.
Elsewhere, Everton celebrated a stunning 3-2 win at West Ham United with Leighton Baines twice equalising from free-kicks and onloan striker Romelu Lukaku heading a late winner.
Hull City also twice came back from a goal down to win 3-2 at Newcastle United and Stephane Sessegnon scored against his former club as West Bromwich Albion beat bottom side Sunderland 3-0.
Earlier, Aston Villa’s Libor Kozak came off the bench to score his first goal for the club in a 1-0 win at Norwich City.
A £7 million signing from Lazio, Kozak settled the game with a 30th-minute tap-in at Carrow Road only two minutes after coming on for the injured Christian Benteke.
Villa manager Paul Lambert, returning to his former club, was also indebted to goalkeeper Brad Guzan, who saved an early Robert Snodgrass penalty and produced a stunning late stop to deny Norwich debutant Gary Hooper.
Victory ended a run of three straight defeats for Villa, while Norwich have won just once in five games.
Ciaran Clark replaced the injured Jores Okore at centre-back for Villa in one of three changes made by Lambert, while Russell Martin and Jonny Howson were brought into the Norwich line-up by manager Chris Hughton.
The game exploded into life with Villa forward Andreas Weimann going close twice in the first three minutes.
The Austrian forced John Ruddy to save after a matter of seconds with an effort from outside the box and then curled a shot against the right-hand post.
Norwich should have taken the lead in the sixth minute, however, but after Clark was harshly penalised for hand-ball, Guzan parried Snodgrass’s spot-kick.
Record Norwich signing Ricky van Wolfswinkel then chested a Nathan Redmond cross over the bar from point-blank range before Benteke and Ron Vlaar each went close within the space of a minute at the other end.
It was to be Benteke’s last contribution as he was forced off by an apparent groin injury, but not before Van Wolfswinkel clipped a halfvolley wide from Martin’s cross.
Kozak came on for Benteke and made an immediate impact, guiding home a cutback from Gabriel Agbonlahor to put Villa ahead.
The hosts then lost Sebastien Bassong to an apparent hamstring injury but came close to an equaliser in the 59th minute when Guzan had to react sharply to prevent Leandro Bacuna scoring an own-goal.
Hughton introduced striker Hooper for his first appearance since a £5 million move from Celtic but the hosts could not find a way through.
Clark sliced an attempted clearance across the face of his own goal and Van Wolfswinkel saw a shot deflected inches wide, before Guzan met a close-range effort from Hooper with a magnificent flying save in the 88th minute.