Late goals by Mohamed Salah and Jordan Henderson earned Liverpool a crucial 3-1 victory at Southampton to move them back to the top of the Premier League on Friday.
For the second week running Liverpool looked like losing ground on Manchester City in a titanic title race, but once again Juergen Klopp’s side would not be denied as they edged a step closer to a first league title since 1990.
With games running out they lead City by two points, although Pep Guardiola’s champions have a game in hand.
Never in doubt, says Klopp, as super Salah joins 50 club
Locked at 1-1 Liverpool were laying siege to the Southampton goal but it was Salah, who had not scored for eight games, who provided the moment of magic they desperately required in the 80th minute, racing away to score a majestic solo goal.
It was Salah’s 50th Premier League goal for Liverpool and six minutes later Henderson, on as a substitute, wrapped it up with a close-range finish.
Shane Long had made it a nail-biting night for Liverpool’s massed ranks of supporters when he fired relegation-threatened Southampton ahead in the ninth minute.
But Liverpool recovered from a surprisingly sluggish start and Naby Keita’s header, his first goal for the club, levelled the scores before halftime.
Victory lifted Liverpool to 82 points from 33 games, with City on 80 from 32.
“It was very big. Every game is massive. We’ve got to win every game. I thought we showed great character in the first half,” Henderson told Sky Sports. “It was a big performance in the second half and a big result.”
Liverpool needed a stoppage-time winner to beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at Anfield last weekend and they were forced to do things the hard way again at St Mary’s.
They were caught cold early on and Long punished them, calmly firing home after Ryan Bertrand’s cross was flicked on.
It could have been worse with Long almost making it 2-0 but Keita’s header calmed the nerves in the away ranks.
Liverpool dominated after the break but Southampton defended tenaciously, even if they were lucky when Maya Yoshida appeared to bring down Keita in the penalty area.
With the clock ticking down and Southampton enjoying a brief flurry of pressure, Liverpool broke and Salah drove forward at pace, making around 50 metres without a challenge before firing the ball past Angus Gunn.
Southampton, who remain five points above the drop zone, were flattened and Liverpool were spared any late frights when Roberto Firmino found Henderson who stroked home.
An ecstatic Klopp joined in the celebrations on the pitch with his players who face Chelsea at home next week.
“We have 82 points now, that is massive in this crazy league and everyone is waiting for us. I am really proud. It is incredible,” the German said.
Burnley made a big step towards securing Premier League survival after coming back from a goal down to beat Bournemouth 3-1 away as their striker Ashley Barnes scored at both ends in an action-packed contest on Saturday.
The result lifted Burnley into 14th place on 36 points from 33 games, eight above the relegation zone with 18th-placed Cardiff on 28 points from 32 matches. Bournemouth are 13th on 38 points from 33 games.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche praised his side who overcame a jittery start at the Vitality stadium.
“So many parts of the performance were strong today,” Dyche told the BBC. “There was no nervousness and we stayed clear-minded. There was a real calmness to our play.
“Twenty-four points since Christmas is a very strong return. We kept playing, we kept probing, we kept doing all the diligent things that we do well.
“It puts us in a much healthier situation than we were two games ago.”
The home side took a fourth-minute lead after Barnes headed into his own net but Burnley came roaring back as Chris Wood levelled with an 18th-minute header before Ashley Westwood swept in a shot from 13 metres barely two minutes later.
Both goals resulted from sloppy Bournemouth defending as their keeper Asmir Begovic misjudged an inswinging corner for the equaliser before Chris Mepham’s poor clearance gave Westwood time and space to fire the visitors ahead.
Callum Wilson missed a gilt-edged chance to equalise midway through the first half when he headed over the bar from close range before another Begovic howler allowed Barnes to score at the right end in the 57th minute.
Wood beat the indecisive Begovic to a deflected cross at the near post, as he turned swiftly and squared the ball back to his strike partner Barnes who rifled it confidently into an empty net from eight metres.
Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe was unhappy with his team’s bloodless performance which stretched their winless home run to four games, leaving them with only one win from their last nine league outings.
“There were lots of elements from our performance today which wasn’t great,” said Howe.
“I have always backed our goalkeepers. Mistakes happen in football. Today we made numerous mistakes in areas we wouldn’t expect them to happen.
“We pride ourselves on our professionalism and our ability to never give up but it didn’t look like that today. We are on a difficult run and confidence is maybe a bit low but the season isn’t over yet.”
Striker Jamie Vardy scored twice to help Leicester City to a commanding 4-1 victory over relegated Huddersfield Town in the Premier League on Saturday.
It was a fourth win in a row for manager Brendan Rodgers who took charge of Leicester in February as Huddersfield missed the chance to move off the bottom of the standings for the first time since December.
“We got off to a good start, getting the first goal of the game again, which is important,” Rodgers told reporters.
“We had other opportunities to be more convincing in the first half on the breakaway but didn’t quite finish them and the keeper made a couple of good saves.”
Leicester’s Youri Tielemans opened the scoring with a long-range strike following a corner in the 24th minute.
Vardy doubled the lead three minutes after the break when he got on the end of a sublime cross from right back Ricardo Pereira.
Huddersfield halved the lead four minutes later when midfielder Aaron Mooy converted a penalty after Caglar Soyuncu brought down Karlan Grant.
James Maddison restored Leicester’s two-goal advantage with a free kick in the 79th minute. Goalkeeper Ben Hamer misjudged the trajectory and took a step to his right before realising too late that the shot was headed to his left.
“When they scored the third our heads dropped and it’s difficult,” Mooy told BBC. “We’ve had such a tough season and it’s just another day when we were not good enough. It’s been a really hard week emotionally.”
Vardy sealed victory with a penalty when Terence Kongolo fouled him after he had rounded the goalkeeper.
It was his 104th goal for Leicester, going past former England striker Gary Lineker’s haul for the club, and his 15th league goal of the season.
“I can take positives, we don’t like the result at all,” Huddersfield manager Jan Siewert said. “At halftime we were down 1-0 and we changed it and came out and tried everything… and they scored too easily.”
The result lifted Leicester to seventh in the standings with 47 points from 33 games, ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers on goal difference.
Crystal Palace all but banished any lingering relegation fears as captain Luka Milivojevic fired home a late penalty to secure a 1-0 Premier League victory at Newcastle on Saturday.
Newcastle were guilty of squandering too many chances and were punished when DeAndre Yedlin fouled Wilfried Zaha in the box in the 80th minute and spot-kick expert Milivojevic did the rest, beating keeper Martin Dubravka.
Palace held on for their first away win over Newcastle in nine attempts, a run stretching back to 1998.
It lifted Roy Hodgson’s side to 12th with 39 points, 11 ahead of third-bottom Cardiff City. Newcastle remained in danger, though, dropping to 15th with 35 points.
To make matters worse for the hosts they had Florian Lejeune taken off on a stretcher in the second half with a knee injury.
Defeat ended a run of five successive home league wins for Rafa Benitez’s side.
Palace played on the counter-attack throughout with Andros Townsend and Zaha a constant threat.
With 10 minutes remaining and Newcastle seeking to extend their impressive home run, another rapid Palace breakaway left the hosts exposed and Zaha skipped past Fabian Schar before being fouled by Yedlin.
Milivojevic has now scored 11 goals in all competitions this season, 10 of them from the penalty spot.
“This three points will guarantee (us staying up),” he said.
“Today our game over 90 minutes was very good. We controlled the game in the second half.”
Both sides had goals ruled out in a lively first half with Salomon Rondon denied for the hosts and James Tomkins, who also hobbled off late on, for Palace.
Newcastle will be scratching their heads over their failure to pick up at least a point after having the lion’s share of possession and chances. They remain winless in 11 Premier League matches against London clubs this season.
“It’s a big disappointment because we had a lot of chances and lots of shots on goal but this is sometimes the kind of game you cannot win but it is important not to lose,” Benitez said.
“The most difficult one is the final third. We pushed and we attacked but we didn’t control the counter-attack the way we should have done.”
Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four finish in the Premier League were dented on Sunday as Everton captain Phil Jagielka took advantage of an unexpected late recall to score the winner in a dominant 1-0 victory at Goodison Park.
The veteran defender, who was brought into the team for a rare appearance after Michael Keane had to withdraw in the warm-up through illness, scored after 10 minutes to earn his side a well-deserved third straight league win.
It marked a significant setback for disappointing Arsenal, who remain fourth in the table but missed an opportunity to leap ahead of their third-placed north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Unai Emery’s side stay on 63 points, one behind Spurs, level with fifth-placed Chelsea and two clear of Manchester United in an increasingly tight battle for the Champions League berths.
The experienced Jagielka proved Everton’s unlikely hero after his late call-up, becoming the oldest goalscorer in the league this season at 36 years 233 days when he poked home his finish after Arsenal failed to clear Lucas Digne’s long throw.
The ball had fallen kindly after Dominic Calvert-Lewin got the final touch on to him in the aerial battle, allowing Jagielka to score his first league goal in two years and become Everton’s second-oldest marksman in the Premier League era.
“I’m not normally a match-winner, full stop,” laughed the former England defender on Sky Sports. “They’re the best goals, the little tap-ins from two or three yards.”
His goal signalled a hungry and aggressive display from Everton who, while moving up to ninth on 46 points, could have won far more convincingly if Gylfi Sigurdsson and Richarlison had converted any of the side’s 23 attempts on goal.
“We got one goal but could have scored a few more,” added Jagielka.
He earned special praise from delighted Everton manager Marco Silva, who told the BBC: “He was to start on the bench, but showed how he is a good professional and prepares himself for what the coach and team needs. He is always ready to help the team.”
Arsenal, who have conceded at least one goal in every league away match this season, came closest with one curling second-half effort from Henrikh Mkhitaryan but were outplayed and outfought by Silva’s team.
They had only two attempts on target in the whole match and, with Mesut Ozil failing to offer much inspiration as captain for the day, endured one of their more frustrating lacklustre away days.
Arsenal’s frustration became obvious when the two managers were involved in a brief confrontation in the second half.
“The football is emotional. He wants the best for his team, I want the best for mine. At the end we spoke together and everything is normal,” said Silva.
Arsenal boss Emery felt his team would have to rebound swiftly as they prepared to face Napoli in a Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday.
“It was not a good result today but we are still fourth,” said the Spaniard. “We lost and we need to get up quickly and find the next step.”