Salah proud to reach landmark in comeback win

LIVERPOOL forward Mohamed Salah expressed his pride after scoring his 150th goal for the club in a 3-1 comeback win over Norwich which maintained the momentum in their title challenge.

Trailing to Milot Rashica’s deflected strike early in the second half, Liverpool drew level through Sadio Mane’s overhead kick before taking the lead soon after through Salah’s landmark effort. The Egypt forward became only the 10th man to reach 150 goals in the club’s history and the second fastest (232 matches) after Roger Hunt (226).

January signing Luis Diaz scored his maiden goal in his fourth appearance to wrap up the win but it was Salah who received the plaudits as Liverpool made it eight successive victories in all competitions to keep the heat on Manchester City.

“It feels great. I’m always proud to score for this club and the most important thing is to win games which is what we did today,” said Salah, who has scored 25 in 30 appearances this season.

“What we can do is focus on each game and that’s the most important thing. We know when you fight with City, City most of the time they win games so all we can do is focus on ourselves and see what happens at the end of the season.”

Hakim Ziyech struck an 89thminute winner to help Chelsea earn a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace.

The Morocco international had been denied earlier when Romelu Lukaku was deemed to be offside, but his late goal strengthens the Blues’ hold on third position.

England duo Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka were on target as Arsenal beat Brentford to move within a point of the top four.

Smith Rowe, making only his second start since December 2, broke the deadlock before Saka added a second before Christian Norgaard struck a last-gasp consolation for the Bees.

At the other end of the table, relegation-threatened Burnley climbed off the bottom with a 3-0 win at Brighton.

Netherlands striker Wout Weghorst scored his first goal, before Josh Brownhill’s deflected shot doubled the visitors’ advantage. Aaron Lennon’s second-half strike then added to the Clarets’ joy as they cruised to a first win in 12 top-flight games.

Emmanuel Dennis ended Watford’s three-month wait for a victory as Roy Hodgson celebrated his first win in charge on the road at Aston Villa.

Dennis headed home a cross from Ismaila Sarr to seal a 1-0 win, Watford’s first victory since beating Manchester United in November, and leave Villa boss Steven Gerrard frustrated for the second week running after their loss to Newcastle.

“Not too much different than my reaction last week,” Gerrard said. “Really frustrated and disappointed in the result and the outcome of the game. We have lacked quality in the final third, that’s for sure, and I’ve had a real honest conversations with the players.

“We need to wake up and wake up fast because our recent form and our recent performances are way short of what’s needed to move up this table.”

In the early kick off, Newcastle’s revival under Eddie Howe continued with a hard-fought 1-1 draw at West Ham. Joe Willock’s equaliser cancelled out Craig Dawson’s header as the Magpies made it six Premier League games unbeaten, while on the south coast, Stuart Armstrong and Shane Long struck as Southampton overwhelmed Everton 2-0.