2024-01-31 22:31:19
Published31. January 2024, 11:31 p.m.
Football: Liverpool solid leader, City hangs on
The Reds were crushed on Wednesday night in the Premier League. The Mancuniens remain second.
Diogo Jota (centre) opens the scoring for Liverpool.
AFP
Liverpool kept their runner-up Manchester City to five points by dominating head and shoulders a Chelsea team (4-1) overtaken on Wednesday by the commitment of the leader and relegated to tenth place following 22 days.
The Reds taught their London visitors a lesson, whom they will face on February 25 in the League Cup final, and ideally prepared for their trip to Arsenal on Sunday, tied for third on points with Manchester City.
Diogo Jota launched the hostilities by passing in force between Thiago Silva and Benoît Badiashile who tries to block his path too tenderly (23rd, 1-0).
Nunez untenable
Conor Bradley, 20-year-old right back, scored his first professional goal with the Reds (39th, 2-0) before finding the head of Dominik Szoboszlai (65th, 3-0), three days following having already signed two assists decisive in the Cup once morest Norwich (5-2).
Darwin Nunez, unbearable, consoled himself for his clumsiness (four shots on the uprights, including a penalty in the 45th + 2) by also making an “assist” for Luis Diaz (79th, 4-1), much more lively than Badiashile, whose evening turned into an ordeal.
The only bright spot for Chelsea came from the half-time entry of Christopher Nkunku. Returning from a hip injury, following having already spent the first half of the season in the infirmary, the French striker scored (71st, 3-1) for his first appearance of the year 2024.
Chelsea, tenth with 31 points, might move down another notch in the standings in the event of a victory on Thursday for Wolverhampton (11th, 29 pts) once morest Manchester United (9th, 32 pts).
Alvarez sees double for his 24th birthday
Manchester City, for its part, recovered second place taken by Arsenal the day before with an easy and quickly acquired victory once morest the penultimate Burnley (3-1) on Wednesday, with a double from Julian Alvarez on his 24th day. birthday.
The Argentine world champion blew hard on the defense of the “Clarets”, who played with Zeki Amdouni until the 59th minute, scoring two goals even before the 24th minute: first on a cross from Matheus Nunes (16th, 1-0), then on a free kick intelligently taken to the ground by Kevin De Bruyne (22nd, 2-0).
No double scorer had experienced such a celebration in the English championship since James Ward-Prowse in November 2020 with Southampton once morest Aston Villa (4-3).
Haaland’s return
As for De Bruyne, he celebrated with a new assist, the third in four appearances in 2024, his first start in the league since his serious knee injury in August.
Pep Guardiola took advantage of the new goal scored by Rodri twenty-five seconds following the restart (46th, 3-0) to introduce rotation in the second half. Erling Haaland, unavailable for two months, was thus able to make his recovery.
Ameen Al-Dakhil reduced the gap in added time (93rd, 3-1), a historic goal in its own way since Burnley had not scored at the Etihad stadium since January 2018.
Three goals in 8 minutes for Spurs
In the last match of this evening, Tottenham won 3-2 at home once morest Brentford. Trailing 0-1 at halftime, Spurs scored three times in eight minutes at the start of the second period.
Udogie (48th), Johnson (49th) and Richarlison (56th) were the misfortune of the visitors who even scored a second goal in the 67th minute thanks to Toney.
Tottenham are fourth, eight points behind Liverpool, while Brentford stagnates in 15th place.
(AFP)
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