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Liverpool's
Emre Can celebrates scoring his side's third goal of the game during the
Premier League match soccer match between Liverpool and Watford at Anfield,
Liverpool, England. Sunday Nov 6, 2016. (Dave Howarth/PA via AP)
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There's an upside to
missing out on the Champions League for Liverpool and Chelsea as they occupy the
Premier League's top two places.
Associated
Press report continues:
With
no grueling midweek matches in Europe, Chelsea and Liverpool conserved their
energy to produce emphatic domestic victories.
A
day after Chelsea routed Everton 5-0, Liverpool overwhelmed Watford 6-1 on
Sunday to move a point ahead of its London title rival.
Arsenal,
Tottenham and Manchester City all failed to win this weekend after playing in
the Champions League in midweek. City lost top spot after being held by
Middlesbrough on Saturday, while Arsenal and Tottenham drew 1-1 in Sunday's
north London derby.
"It's
a little physical advantage for sure," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said
about not playing in the Champions League, which boosts the profits and
prestige of participants.
What
about the less illustrious Europa League where games are played on Thursday
night?
Manchester
United followed up its 4-1 victory at Fenerbahce by winning 3-1 at Swansea to
halt a four-match winless run in the Premier League. Southampton, though, came
back down to earth after beating Inter Milan by losing 2-1 to a Hull side in the
bottom three.
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LIVERPOOL
6, WATFORD 1
Liverpool
occupies top spot for the first time since May 2014 when the team came close to
winning the title for the first time since 1990 before a late collapse.
Sadio
Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can scored in the space of 16 first-half
minutes to put Watford out of sight. Roberto Firmino, Mane and Georginio
Wijnaldum added further goals in the second half.
Liverpool,
which has now scored four or more goals in five league matches this season, is
a point in front of Chelsea and two ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal.
"On
a good day, we are really difficult to play (against)," Liverpool manager
Juergen Klopp said.
___
SWANSEA
1, MANCHESTER UNITED 3
Jose
Mourinho was forced to watch from the stands as he served a touchline ban but
he will have liked what he saw in south Wales.
There
was a landmark goal for one of the brashest of players. The first of Zlatan
Ibrahimovic's two goals was the 25,000th in the Premier League since the
competition's inception in 1992.
Paul
Pogba also unleashed a 20-yard volley for his second league goal since joining
United in August from Juventus for a world-record fee of 105 million euros.
Swansea
is only off the bottom due to Sunderland having an inferior goal difference and
Bob Bradley has collected only one point from his first four matches in charge.
Bradley,
the first American manager in the Premier League, has extend the winless run,
which started under the fired Francesco Guidolin to 10 matches. That's the
worst since Swansea was promoted to the Premier League in 2011.
___
ARSENAL
1, TOTTENHAM 1
Harry
Kane made a scoring return from injury Sunday, grabbing the equalizer at
Arsenal to preserve Tottenham's unbeaten start.
Kane,
who has missed 10 games after damaging ligaments in his right ankle, converted
a penalty six minutes into the second half to prevent Arsenal going top of the
table.
In
a north London derby played at a frantic pace, Tottenham gifted Arsenal the
lead just before halftime when Kevin Wimmer inadvertently headed Mesut Ozil's
free kick into his own goal.
Despite
Spurs being on their longest unbeaten run in the league — 11 games — in more
than 50 years they remain fifth.
___
LEICESTER
CITY 1, WEST BROMWICH ALBION 2
Meanwhile Reuters reports that Leicester
City's proud unbeaten home streak was ended after 13 months as Matt Phillips
earned West Bromwich Albion an unlikely win at the King Power Stadium on
Sunday.
The
champions succumbed in the 72nd minute when Phillips latched on to a careless,
under-hit back pass from Danny Drinkwater to outpace Wes Morgan and dink the
ball expertly over Ron-Robert Zieler for his first Baggies' goal.
Albion's
win had looked unlikely when Leicester, who rested Jamie Vardy before using him
as a second-half sub, hit back strongly once James Morrison had headed the
visitors in front in the 52nd minute.
Three minutes later, Islam Slimani equalized from Riyad Mahrez's pinpoint cross — the Algerian's first assist in his last 18 Premier League games — but Leicester were left to rue another loss that leaves them just two points above the relegation zone.
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