Liverpool’s Curtis Jones, right, scores his team’s second goal past Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, England, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Curtis Jones won Mohamed Salah’s first-half penalty and got himself on the scoresheet in the 51st minute to restore his side’s lead shortly after Nicolas Jackson had equalized for Chelsea.
Liverpool are looking increasingly like arch-rivals Manchester City after beating a resurgent Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday to stay top of the Premier League table.
After City needed an extra-time header from John Stones to beat bottom-placed Wolves 2-1 early on, Liverpool responded with a calm performance at Anfield to hand Chelsea their first league defeat since the first circle.
After seeing third-placed Arsenal lose at Bournemouth on Saturday to raise questions over the Gunners’ title hopes, Liverpool and City took full advantage to close a narrow gap at the top of the table. Arne Slott’s side lead with 21 points from eight games, one ahead of City and four ahead of Arsenal.
Curtis Jones set up victory for Liverpool, winning Mohamed Salah’s first-half penalty and then scoring himself to restore the home side’s lead in the 51st minute, shortly after Nicholas Jackson had equalized for Chelsea.
Liverpool were the last team other than City to win the title in 2019-20 and pushed Pep Guardiola’s side to the very end several times under Jurgen Klopp before finishing just fifth two years ago and a distant third last season.
In Slot’s first season in charge, however, the Reds look like credible contenders once again and have already won 10 out of 11 games in all competitions.
And City are far from looking invincible, needing another last minute goal from Stones to avoid a third league draw in four games against a Wolves side who have just one point so far.
It also needed VAR intervention for the goal to stand as referee Chris Kavanagh was called on the sideline monitor to check if Bernardo Silva was obstructing goalkeeper Jose Sa from offside.
“We are not used to winning games at the end,” said Guardiola, whose side have won four straight league titles, regularly beating most opponents. “It tastes good to us.”
It also extended City’s unbeaten run to a club-record 31 league games, beating the mark set by Guardiola’s side in 2018.
With prolific striker Erling Haaland kept scoreless for the third successive league game, City’s defenders provided the goals instead after Jorgen Strand Larsen gave the home side a surprise early lead in the seventh minute.
Josko Guardiola curled in a superb right-footed strike from outside the box to equalize in the 33rd minute, but Wolves then held off wave after wave of City attacks before the late intervention of Stones, who also scored an equalizer against Arsenal in the eighth minute. minute of injury time last month.
“Those moments don’t come around often for us,” Stones said. “We’ve come up with a few over the years and today was one of them.”
