Weekend recap: Liverpool back on top, City beat Palace, Man Utd lucky vs Hammers

Our weekly Premier League recap continues. Here, we’ll look at how Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United did over the weekend.

Liverpool

Liverpool moved down to second in the Premier League table temporarily on Sunday, but it didn’t take them long to regain top spot as they beat Chelsea at Anfield. Sadio Mane opened the scoring 51 minutes into the game. There was a quickfire double for the Reds, as they scored again just two minutes later. Mo Salah picked the ball up out on the right, came inside onto his favourite left foot, and rifled a powerful strike into the top corner. It was an absolutely brilliant goal by the Egyptian.

Liverpool weathered a bit of a storm after they scored their second, as Chelsea looked to react. Eden Hazard missed two huge chances that he’d be expected to score. The Reds held on and returned to the top of the table.

They’re in a real battle with Manchester City for the title, and it looks like it’ll go right down to the last couple of games of the season. Unfortunately for the Reds, it’s out of their hands and there’s nothing they can do if City win all their games. All Jurgen Klopp’s men can do is ensure they win all theirs and hope for a slip-up. The game against Chelsea was seen as Liverpool’s stiffest challenge and they passed it. They must win all of their remaining games or they’ll likely fall short.

Attention now turns to Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg, where they travel to Porto with a 2-0 lead from the first leg at Anfield.

Manchester City

Manchester City returned to the top of the Premier League for a short time when they beat Crystal Palace on Sunday, before Liverpool again overtook them with a win against Chelsea. City’s game at Selhurst Park was tight at times, but Raheem Sterling had a glorious chance to put his side into the lead early on, but dragged his shot wide. He didn’t let his head drop after that, though, and when he was slipped through on goal by a wonderful ball from Kevin De Bruyne, he ran through and finished expertly past the Palace ‘keeper.

The brilliant winger added his second goal after 63 minutes, and it seemed like the tie was over. But, with nine minutes to play, Luka Milivojevic put a free-kick past Ederson and it looked like Palace were back in it. They tried to rally, but City took the sting out the game; keeping the ball at the corner flag for a few minutes. Then, in stoppage-time, Gabriel Jesus scored to finish the game off.

City keep winning and don’t look like stopping. But it looks as though they’ll have to win every game to retain the Premier League title. With a home game against Tottenham next weekend, three days after the same fixture is played in the Champions League on Wednesday, followed by a trip to Old Trafford to play rivals Manchester United, they’re going to have to be at the very top of their game.

Manchester United

Manchester United got a narrow 2-1 win against West Ham on Saturday at Old Trafford. Paul Pogba opened the scoring with a penalty after 19 minutes. Felipe Anderson equalised for the visitors four minutes into the second half, with De Gea being poor for the goal, but Pogba scored another penalty after 80 minutes to send United back into the lead. They held on and took all three points.

The victory wasn’t without controversy, though. The Irons had a goal disallowed for offside against Anderson, but it looked marginal and they’ll be disappointed that decision was given against them. Both penalties awarded seemed dubious, too, but United will hardly care. It’s the business end of the season and they’ve secured three points, which is all that matters. They’re fifth in the table, but will drop to sixth if Arsenal manage to get at least a point tonight against Watford.

The battle for the top four is still on, but up next is a real battle at the Nou Camp, where they go to attempt to turn around a 1-0 deficit against Barcelona. They’ll have to be exceptional if they’re going to qualify for the Champions League semi-final.

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This article was written by PremPlace. You can see their website by clicking here.