{"id":72614,"date":"2024-02-01T07:41:47","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T04:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kfm.co.ug\/?p=72614"},"modified":"2024-02-01T07:41:47","modified_gmt":"2024-02-01T04:41:47","slug":"liverpool-sink-chelsea-to-bolster-title-charge-haaland-returns-in-man-city-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/liverpool-sink-chelsea-to-bolster-title-charge-haaland-returns-in-man-city-cruise\/","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool sink Chelsea to bolster title charge, Haaland returns in Man City cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"

By AFP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Premier League leaders Liverpool stepped up their title bid with a 4-1 rout of Chelsea, while Erling Haaland made his Manchester City comeback as the champions beat Burnley 3-1 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Jurgen Klopp’s shock revelation that he will step down as Liverpool boss at the end of the season has done nothing to stop the momentum of a team challenging for silverware in four competitions.<\/p>\n

The Reds crushed Norwich 5-2 in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday and were equally ruthless when Chelsea visited Anfield for the second game of Klopp’s long goodbye.<\/p>\n

First-half goals from Diogo Jota and Conor Bradley put Liverpool in control.<\/p>\n

Dominik Szoboszlai scored Liverpool’s third and, although Christopher Nkunku replied for overwhelmed Chelsea, Luis Diaz capped the hosts’ dominant display.<\/p>\n

Liverpool sit five points clear of second-placed City, who have a game in hand as they try to spoil Klopp’s bid to bow out with the second Premier League title of his nine-year reign.<\/p>\n

Unbeaten in their last 11 games in all competitions, Liverpool head to third-placed Arsenal on Sunday for another test of their title credentials.<\/p>\n

“You have to play outstandingly well to keep Chelsea calm. But the way we started the game was really strong,” Klopp said.<\/p>\n

“We put them under pressure. Counter pressing was top, putting them in areas where they didn’t want to be. It was a great night.”<\/p>\n

Klopp’s men will meet Chelsea again in the League Cup final at Wembley on February 25, with the Reds also still competing in the FA Cup and Europa League.<\/p>\n

Chelsea will have to improve significantly to win the rematch after a limp display that underlined why they are languishing in 10th place.<\/p>\n

Haaland had been sidelined for nearly two months by a foot injury, but City barely missed the presence of the Norwegian as they won nine and drew one of the 10 games when he was absent.<\/p>\n

Julian Alvarez again stepped up in Haaland’s absence as the Argentine struck twice on his 24th birthday to effectively end the game at the Etihad as a contest inside 22 minutes.<\/p>\n

The Argentine headed in from Matheus Nunes’ cross and then finished off a clever free-kick from Kevin De Bruyne.<\/p>\n

Stylish City<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Rodri made it 3-0 inside the first minute of the second half, but Pep Guardiola made the expectant home crowd wait until 19 minutes from time for Haaland’s introduction.<\/p>\n

Rather than a goalscoring return from last season’s Golden Boot winner, it was the Clarets who struck next to end a run of 22 consecutive City goals in league meetings between the sides.<\/p>\n

Ameen Al Dakhil struck four minutes into stoppage time, but it was no more than a consolation for the Clarets, who remain second bottom and seven points adrift of safety.<\/p>\n

“Today the game was not close. There are games with this score that feel closer, this was not,” Guardiola said.<\/p>\n

“Kevin De Bruyne and Erling are going to help us this part of the season.”<\/p>\n

In Wednesday’s other game, Tottenham climbed into the top four with a 3-2 win over Brentford.<\/p>\n

Neal Maupay gave the Bees a deserved half-time lead at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.<\/p>\n

But Ange Postecoglou’s side hit back with three goals in the first 11 minutes of the second period.<\/p>\n

Destiny Udogie blasted home from close range to level before Brennan Johnson tapped in Timo Werner’s low cross at the back post.<\/p>\n

Tottenham appeared to have the points won when Richarlison turned in his ninth goal of the season.<\/p>\n

However, an error from Udogie teed up Ivan Toney to score his second goal in as many games since returning from an eight-month gambling ban.<\/p>\n

Spurs held on through seven minutes of added time to edge above Aston Villa on goals scored into fourth as the battle for a place in next season’s Champions League hots up.<\/p>\n

“It’s a young, maturing team. Friday’s loss to Manchester City showed we have a long way to go and tonight was another test,” Postecoglou said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By AFP Premier League leaders Liverpool stepped up their title bid with a 4-1 rout of Chelsea, while Erling Haaland made his Manchester City comeback as the champions beat Burnley 3-1 on Wednesday. Jurgen Klopp’s shock revelation that he will step down as Liverpool boss at the end of the season has done nothing to stop the momentum of a team challenging for silverware in four competitions. The Reds crushed Norwich 5-2 in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday and were equally ruthless when Chelsea visited Anfield for the second game of Klopp’s long goodbye. First-half goals from Diogo Jota and Conor Bradley put Liverpool in control. Dominik Szoboszlai scored Liverpool’s third and, although Christopher Nkunku replied for overwhelmed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":72615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128,1323],"class_list":["post-72614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-chelsea","tag-liverpool"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}