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LONDON, England (AP):
Liverpool head into Christmas with a four-point lead, a game in hand, and as the overwhelming title favourites in the English Premier League on the back of a wild 6-3 win at Tottenham yesterday.
As for Manchester United and theirs new manager Ruben Amorim, they stumble into the festive period in 13th place – as low as they’ve been at Christmas since the 1989-90 season – and with a familiar sinking feeling.
United lost 3-0 at home to Bournemouth for the second straight season, the latest statistic to show just how far the English giants have fallen and the job Amorim has to turn around their fortunes.
Worse for United, it seems like great rivals Liverpool cannot be stopped.
Make that 21 games in all competitions without defeat after the Reds’ biggest league win of the season, with Mohamed Salah netting two of the goals to move above Manchester City’s Erling Haaland to the top of the scoring charts.
Liverpool have 39 points from 16 games and stretched their lead over second-place Chelsea, who could only draw 0-0 at Everton, to end a five-match winning streak in the league.
Goal fest
Salah now has 15 goals in the Premier League to break a tie with Haaland – and will leave London thinking he should have had more.
In an end-to-end contest resembling a basketball match, Liverpool scored more than five goals for the first time this season, with Luis Diaz (two), Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai also netting.
“You can see quality players with top discipline,” Tottenham captain Son Heung-min said. “There’s a reason they are top. If you give them a mistake, they punish you.”
Tottenham’s injury-hit defence was open at the back but its attack caused Liverpool’s problems throughout, with James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke all finding the net.
Spurs are another big team in the bottom half, having slipped to 11th place.
Back to square one
The optimism that might have been generated by a last-gasp 2-1 derby win at Manchester City last weekend has disappeared for United, who lost 4-3 at Tottenham in the English League Cup quarter-finals on Thursday before being handed a defeat to Bournemouth by the same score as 12 months ago.
“We were a bit nervous, I felt it in the stadium,” said Amorim, who has won four and lost four in all competitions since starting his United tenure with a draw at Ipswich on November 24.
Dean Huijsen, Justin Kluivert – from the penalty spot – and Antoine Semenyo scored for Bournemouth, who climbed to fifth place in the standings and have now beaten Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham and United this season. Indeed, City have dropped to seventh place, an unthinkable unravelling for the winners of the last four Premier League titles.
United left out Marcus Rashford for the third straight match.
Winning start for Pereira
Vitor Pereira got off to a great start as Wolverhampton manager, with his new team beating Leicester 3-0 in his first match in charge.
Pereira took charge on Thursday as the replacement for Gary O’Neil and immediately ended Wolves’ four-game losing run as Gonçalo Guedes, Rodrigo Gomes and Matheus Cunha scored first-half goals at King Power Stadium.
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