Liverpool score two late goals in 4-3 thriller against Fulham
IMAGE: Liverpool’s Wataru Endo celebrates scoring their third goal. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
Liverpool scored two late goals a minute apart including Trent Alexander-Arnold’s winner in the 88th minute in their breathless 4-3 victory over Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Wataru Endo scored in the 87th minute, while a debut strike from Alexis Mac Allister and an own goal by Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno from Alexander-Arnold’s spectacular free kick lifted Juergen Klopp’s team into second in the standings on 31 points.
Liverpool are two points adrift of leaders Arsenal, while Manchester City are third on 29 points, but play later on Sunday. Fulham are 14th.
Fulham looked poised to end Liverpool’s undefeated streak at Anfield in the league that goes back to October 2022 before Mohamed Salah laid it off to Endo for a long-range goal.
After sprinting back to the centre circle, Alexander-Arnold connected with Kostas Tsimikas’s header to fire home the winner from the edge of the box.
Klopp celebrated the victory with a few delighted fist pumps to the fans.
Harry Wilson, Kenny Tete and Bobby De Cordova-Reid scored for Fulham who twice clawed back from being a goal behind.
Alexander-Arnold was initially credited with Liverpool’s first goal in the 20th minute, a superb free kick that sailed over the wall before glancing off the underside of the crossbar and then in off keeper Leno.
Mac Allister’s first goal for Liverpool was a memorable one when a Fulham clearance fell at his feet in the 38th minute. He took a couple of touches before launching a rocket from 25 yards out into the top corner.
Alexander-Arnold’s late-game heroics came a week after his 80th-minute goal ended Manchester City’s run of 23 wins at the Etihad Stadium with a 1-1 draw.
Salah had thought he had scored his 200th goal for Liverpool in the game’s early minutes with his stab in from close range but VAR determined Luis Diaz was offside.
There was a long delay in the first half after Leno took a knee to the head, but he remained in the game with his head heavily bandaged.
Fernandez double helps 10-man Chelsea to 3-2 win over Brighton
IMAGE: Brighton & Hove Albion’s James Milner concedes a penalty against Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters
First Chelsea Premier League goals from Enzo Fernandez and Levi Colwill earned the 10-man home side a 3-2 win over Brighton and Hove Albion at a rain-sodden Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
Chelsea played the entire second half a player down after captain Conor Gallagher picked up two yellow cards, but World Cup-winning Argentine Fernandez kept them in front with a goal in each half.
Fernandez, who had only previously scored in the League Cup, headed home a neat overhead kick from defender Benoit Badiashile in the 17th minute.
Colwill, on loan at Brighton last season, made it two four minutes later from a Nicolas Jackson headed pass. It was the former Chelsea junior’s first senior goal for his side but he chose not to celebrate in front of the travelling fans.
Chelsea looked to be cruising but Brighton pulled one back two minutes from halftime through a curling shot by Facundo Buonanotte.
Then Gallagher slid in on former Chelsea team mate Billy Gilmour and was dismissed by referee Craig Pawson.
Brighton pressed Chelsea in numbers at the start of the second half, trying to make their advantage tell but substitute James Milner could not keep up with Mykhailo Mudryk on the counter and brought him down.
After a six minute delay for a VAR check, Fernandez scored his second from the penalty spot in the 65th minute.
Brighton’s Joao Pedro made sure of a nervy run-in during time added-on when he scored with a glancing header in the 92nd minute after sustained pressure from the visiting side.
They peppered the Chelsea goal for the last hectic 10 minutes and Chelsea had Robert Sanchez to thank for keeping the score in check.
Pascal Gross had three good chances saved by the Spanish keeper in regulation time and he also kept out a Joao Pedro effort in the 99th minute.
A final twist in the tail sent Pawson to the VAR monitor for a second time after he indicated a penalty for a handball from Colwill as Chelsea defended desperately with every player behind the ball.
The replays showed the Chelsea man had been hit in the face rather than on the arm by the ball and the decision was overturned.
The result sent Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea up a place to 10th in the table, three points behind Brighton in eighth.
West Ham held to draw at home by Palace
IMAGE: West Ham United’s Emerson Palmieri in action with Crystal Palace’s Jordan Ayew. Photograph: Tony Obrien/Reuters
West Ham United scored early but were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Hammers remained ninth in the standings, on 21 points, as they failed to take advantage of Brighton & Hove Albion’s 3-2 defeat by Chelsea, while Palace moved up to 12th on 16 points.
Palace came into the game on the back of two defeats, and will be happy to come away from this one with a point.
“We’ve stopped the bleeding. When you go on a run of successive losses, just a point is massive in this league,” Palace defender Marc Guehi said.
“There are so many good teams, and it’s quite competitive around us. Today was a good point, and it’s important that we move on and build on this.”
West Ham took the lead in the 13th minute when James Ward-Prowse played a pass out wide to Vladimir Coufal on the right who cut it back to Mohammed Kudus in the area and his first time shot found the bottom corner via a small deflection.
“It is always good to score early on in the game,” Kudus said. “It gives the team momentum and energy.”
Palace’s equaliser came in the 53rd minute with West Ham looking to play it out from the back, but a stray pass from Konstantinos Mavropanos was picked up by Odsonne Edouard who raced into the box and fired his shot into the far corner.
It made up for his miss just a minute earlier when Guehi met a free kick into the area and played the ball across goal, but Edouard couldn’t get his head to it and Ward-Prowse, just behind him, headed it over for a corner.
The visitors struggled to create any clear-cut chances in the first half after falling behind, but with West Ham failing to build on their early lead, Palace went in at the break still very much in the game.
West Ham did have the ball in the net in the first minute of the second half, but Tomas Soucek, who took a swing at a cross from Kudus without touching the ball, was in an offside position.
The home side had a great chance to retake the lead in the 64th minute when Lucas Paqueta sent a dangerous ball into the box but an unmarked Emerson at the back post hit his volley from close range over the bar.
West Ham had won their last two league games, but in a game with few chances they were forced to settle for a point at home.
Watkins heads late equaliser as Aston Villa draw 2-2 with Bournemouth
IMAGE: Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins celebrates scoring their second goal. Photograph: Ian Walton/Reuters
A late goal from Ollie Watkins grabbed a point for Aston Villa in a 2-2 draw at Bournemouth after a pulsating, end-to-end Premier League clash on Sunday.
Bournemouth took the lead in the 10th minute when Antoine Semenyo netted his third goal of the season, and he could have had a second six minutes later, but Villa keeper Emi Martinez was able to turn away his shot form a tight angle.
Semenyo was then booked for dissent in the 17th minute and three minutes later Villa were level as Leon Bailey jinked inside Milos Kerkez before lashing the ball across Neto and in at the far post.
Semenyo somehow avoided a second yellow card despite a blatant shirt-pull a minute later, and Villa’s misery was compounded when the goal they thought they had scored form the subsequent free kick was chalked off after a VAR review found Lucas Digne had been offside.
Striker Dominic Solanke put the home side ahead again seven minutes into the second half, latching on to a square from Kerkez and turning brilliantly before firing home.
Both sides continued to attack and Villa, who had been kept in the game by some fine saves by Martinez, came closest to scoring with a deflected shot from Jhon Duran that hit the post in the 72nd minute.
With the clock ticking up towards 90 minutes Watkins finally got the equaliser his side so richly deserved, twisting his body to steer home a brilliant header to take a share of the points.
The result keeps Villa in fourth place in the table on 29 points after 14 games, while the Cherries remain above the relegation zone in 16th spot on 13 points.
