The Phuket News

Liverpool keep pressure on leaders Manchester City

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Liverpool kept the pressure on Pre

mier League leaders Manchester City as Fabinho sealed a 1-0 win over Burnley last Sunday (Feb 13).

The Brazilian struck late in the first half at windswept Turf Moor to give Liverpool their fourth successive league victory.

Liverpool are nine points behind City

with one game in hand as the Reds refuse

to let the title race become a prolonged coronation for Pep Guardiola’s men.

City made it 14 wins from their last 15 league games on Saturday as Raheem

Sterling’s hat-trick inspired a comfortabl­e

4-0 win at lowly Norwich.

But Guardiola is convinced Liverpool

will push the champions all the way to the finish line and the way they ground out a hard-fought success against bottom

of the table Burnley suggests he is right not to count them out.

“It is nine points and then it is 12 points because most of the time City play before us. These are really difficult games. That is why we don’t think about the title race,” Reds boss Jurgen Klopp said.

After a shaky start, during which Burnley threatened a shock opener, Fabinho restored order five minutes before half-time, poking home a fifth

goal in his last seven games from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner.

“A perfect afternoon. Raining and windy,” Klopp said. “Everything today was set up to be a banana skin for us. We played the circumstan­ces rather than suffered from them.”

Meanwhile, Tottenham lost to Wolves

0-2, their second successive home defeat.

Antonio Conte's side, loudly booed off at

full-time, dropped to eighth place, five points adrift of the Champions League places. Wolves, who climbed above Spurs into seventh place, have won four successive top-flight away games for the first time since 1980.

Manchester United are now 23 points off the top and in increasing danger of failing to qualify for next season’s Champions

League following a frustratin­g 1-1 home draw with Southampto­n last Saturday.

The Red Devils took the lead through Jadon Sancho’s first Premier League goal but, for the third consecutiv­e game, surrendere­d a lead to draw 1-1 when Che Adams slotted in off the inside of the post two minutes into the second half.

At the bottom of the table, Everton secured just their second league win in 16

games in Frank Lampard’s home debut in charge with a dominant 3-0 victory over Leeds while Brentford edged seven points

clear of the bottom three by snapping a six-game losing run with a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace.

Newcastle continued their fine form with a 1-0 victory against Aston Villa with England defender Kieran Trippier scoring from a free kick for the second consecutiv­e game.

 ?? Photo: Paul Ellis / AFP ?? Fabinho (left) opens the scoring for Liverpool at Turf Moor.
Photo: Paul Ellis / AFP Fabinho (left) opens the scoring for Liverpool at Turf Moor.

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