Liverpool’s Salah downs Man City as Arsenal extend lead

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring against Manchester City during the Premier League match at Anfield in Liverpool, northwest England, yesterday. (AFP)

Mohamed Salah produced a moment of magic as Liverpool condemned Manchester City to their first Premier League defeat of the season yesterday, with leaders Arsenal taking full advantage.The Egyptian forward’s stunning goal in the 76th minute sealed a 1-0 win after a crackling contest at Anfield and leaves champions City four points behind the Gunners, who won by the same scoreline at Leeds. Elsewhere, a Mason Mount double secured a 2-0 win for Chelsea at Aston Villa and Manchester United played out a 0-0 stalemate at home to Newcastle, while Southampton drew 1-1 with West Ham.Liverpool and City could not be separated in the first half at Anfield but the game caught fire after the break. Jurgen Klopp’s team had a glorious chance to take the lead early in the second half when Salah broke clear on goal but Ederson managed to get a faint touch to tip his shot wide.City thought they had snatched the lead moments later through Phil Foden but VAR spotted a foul by Erling Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up and the goal was disallowed. Instead it was Liverpool who struck, with Salah spinning past Joao Cancelo on the halfway line as the pair challenged for an Alisson clearance and racing away to fire beyond Ederson.The game became heated in the closing stages and referee Anthony Taylor sent Klopp to the stands for the German’s angry reaction to a perceived injustice. But Liverpool repelled City’s desperate attacks in the closing stages to secure just their third league win in nine games after poor start to the season. Liverpool are still 10 points behind City and 14 adrift of Arsenal, but kept their title aspirations alive with just a third league win of the season. “We don’t have to think about the title at the moment, of course personally I love to play always for a title. In my head I am going to fight for it, but we need to focus more and take one game at a time,” said Salah. “We don’t have to feel more pressure that there is still a gap between us and first and second but of course we are going to play for a title. As players and a team, we should be in a better position, the players are excited to win and that gives us a good push for the next games,” the Egyptian added.Earlier, England midfielder Bukayo Saka slammed home emphatically 10 minutes before the interval at Elland Road as Mike Arteta’s Arsenal won for the ninth time in 10 league games this season. Leeds substitute Patrick Bamford missed a penalty and his side had another spot-kick decision in stoppage time, initially awarded by referee Chris Kavanagh, overturned after a VAR intervention.Arteta praised his young team for rising to the occasion at Leeds despite being second best for most of the match. “Hectic! It is always really intense here,” Arteta said. “We were exceptional in the first half and should have been two or three up. Credit to Leeds in the second half, we made so many errors and did not generate momentum. But I just love the relentless passion the team played with and how we found a way to win. This is something special, this is not a coincidence (where) it shows the willingness that I see in the eyes of the players to win, to compete.”Earlier, play was suspended seconds after kick-off when the match officials lost contact with the video assistant referee and goal-line technology due to a power cut. Kavanagh led the players off the pitch to a chorus of boos and play did not resume for about 40 minutes.Chelsea’s fourth consecutive league win came courtesy of Mount’s two goals plus an inspired performance from goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Mount’s first came after Villa defender Tyrone Mings – in the sixth minute – miscued a simple header straight to the England midfielder, who finished coolly past Emiliano Martinez.Despite their early gift, Chelsea struggled to find attacking fluency and were indebted to Arrizabalaga, whose best save came from a point-blank header from Danny Ings. Mount doubled the visitors’ lead in the 65th minute, curling home a free-kick from 25 yards after he was brought down by Mings.Chelsea manager Graham Potter heaped praise on Mount and said Arrizabalaga, who is keeping Edouard Mendy out of the starting line-up, had produced a “world-class performance”.Cristiano Ronaldo was handed just his second start of the Premier League season against Newcastle but could not add to his tally of 700 club goals – a milestone he reached last week against Everton. Eddie Howe’s visitors could have been ahead at the break after an impressive first half in which Joelinton hit the crossbar before turning the rebound onto the post.But United rued two squandered late chances to win the game, with Fred and substitute Marcus Rashford both guilty.United manager Erik ten Hag bemoaned the late misses. “In the end we could – we should – have score the winning goal,” he said. “One from Fred, and then (Marcus) Rashford had to score. In the end we could have got the win, we deserved the win.”Premier League results Aston Villa 0 Chelsea 2 (Mount 6, 65); Leeds 0 Arsenal 1 (Saka 35); Liverpool 1 (Salah 76) Manchester City 0; Manchester United 0 Newcastle 0; Southampton 1 (Perraud 20) West Ham 1 (Rice 64)Played Saturday: Leicester 0 Crystal Palace 0; Fulham 2 (Diop 22, Mitrovic 52-pen) Bournemouth 2 (Solanke 2, Lerma 29); Wolves 1 (Neves 56-pen) Nottingham Forest 0; Tottenham 2 (Kane 59-pen, Hojbjerg 86) Everton 0Friday: Brentford 2 (Toney 27, 64-pen) Brighton 0