Premier League: Liverpool loses 2-1 at Arsenal\, ending bid for points record

Premier League: Liverpool loses 2-1 at Arsenal, ending bid for points record

The title was sealed in record time three weeks ago, with seven games to spare after a three-month pandemic-enforced break in the season. The trophy will be presented to Liverpool players after final home match of the season next Wednesday against Chelsea.

By: AP | Published: July 16, 2020 8:56:22 am
Liverpool v Arsenal Arsenal’s David Luiz grabs Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, foreground and left, during the English Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and Liverpool in London, England, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. (Paul Childs/Pool via AP)

Liverpool will have to settle for just lifting the Premier League trophy next week. It won’t be accompanied by a record-breaking points total after losing 2-1 at Arsenal on Wednesday.

Having ended the club’s 30-year title drought, Liverpool has eased up and the bid to match or overhaul Manchester City’s 100-point record is over.

Arsenal scored from its first two shots on target — to cancel out Sadio Mane’s opener — and Liverpool provided the assists through carelessness.

“We are all human,” Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said. “I cannot make a negative out of something so positive — becoming champions so early in the season. These boys have played an exceptional season and no one can take that away from them.”

Under pressure from Arsenal forward Reiss Nelson on the edge of the penalty area, Virgil van Dijk opted for an ill-judged back-pass. Alexandre Lacazette intercepted the ball and rounded goalkeeper Alisson before tapping in Arsenal’s equalizer in the 32nd minute.

Alisson was at fault for Arsenal’s winner by clearing the ball straight to Lacazette, and Nelson applied the finish in the 44th.

“The goals we gave them were a present,” Van Dijk said. “Until the first goal it was totally us and we were dominant. But if you give goals like that away, including myself, you get what you deserve.

“Goals like that shouldn’t happen and it happened twice tonight. Until I make the mistake, we did nothing wrong. I take the blame for it, of course, I take it as a man and we move on.”

It had initially been Arsenal’s defending that was providing gifts. Mane was left unmarked to meet Andrew Robertson’s cross and put Liverpool in front in the 20th minute.

But Liverpool now has just one point from its last two games after being held 1-1 by Burnley at Anfield, ending a bid to become the first team to finish a Premier League season with a perfect record at home.

This was only Liverpool’s third loss of the season but it means it can only finish with 99 points by winning its remaining two matches.

“We can’t blame it on the fact that we are already champions,” Van Dijk said. “We will try to win the last two games and then get a well-deserved break. We have had a fantastic season.”

The title was sealed in record time three weeks ago, with seven games to spare after a three-month pandemic-enforced break in the season.

The trophy will be presented to Liverpool players after final home match of the season next Wednesday against Chelsea.

With no fans allowed into Anfield due to the coronavirus, a podium will be built in the iconic Kop stand for Jordan Henderson to become the first Liverpool player since 1990 to lift a league championship trophy.

Arsenal has won the Premier League four times since then, but not since 2004. The north London club is way off the pace this season, 40 points adrift. This win only lifted Mikel Arteta’s side to ninth place, but it remains in the hunt for Europa League qualification.

A route into Europe also remains through the FA Cup with Arsenal playing defending champion Manchester City in the semifinals on Saturday.

“We’ve been working hard and getting the win here against the leaders is good for us,” Nelson said, “and we will take it into the next game.”

Silva scores free kick, shines as City beats Bournemouth 2-1

The highlight reel of David Silva’s decade at Manchester City is getting some top-quality bonus material from his last games with the club.

Silva scored from a direct free kick for the second straight home match to lead City to a 2-1 win over relegation-threatened Bournemouth in the Premier League on Wednesday.

The former Spain playmaker also set up Gabriel Jesus for the second goal in City’s first match since winning its appeal against a two-year ban from European competition.

Silva will leave City at the end of the season after a 10-year spell that will see him go down as one the club’s greatest players, if not the best.

His display against Bournemouth had other Premier League players taking to social media to praise Silva, whose curling free kick from the right edge of the penalty area in the sixth minute touched the crossbar as it went in.

“Sorry,” Leicester midfielder James Maddison wrote on Twitter after Silva scored his free kick, “but David Silva is a true Premier League great. Have so much respect for him. Admire his character and ability.

“Genius at work and will miss watching him, won’t miss playing against him whatsoever.”

City fielded a heavily rotated side in view of the FA Cup semifinal match against Arsenal on Saturday but still just about had too much for Bournemouth, which grabbed its goal through David Brooks in the 88th minute and more than matched City in spells.

Kane passes 200 club goals with 2 for Spurs in win

Harry Kane scored twice to go past 200 club goals in his career and lead Tottenham to a 3-1 win over Newcastle on Wednesday as Jose Mourinho celebrated his first Premier League victory at St James’ Park at the eighth attempt.

Kane brought up the milestone in the 60th minute to put Tottenham ahead for the second time in the match, before his 15th league goal of the season took him past 20 in all competitions for the sixth successive campaign.

Earlier, Matt Ritchie’s piledriver in the 56th cancelled out Son Heung-min’s 27th-minute opener.

The victory moved Tottenham into seventh place, a point behind Wolverhampton, to keep Mourinho’s team in the hunt for Europa League qualification. A third straight loss for midtable Newcastle dented its hopes of beating the 45 points the team managed last season under Rafael Benitez.

Wolves concedes late equalizer at Burnley to damage CL hopes

Wolverhampton conceded a goal from a penalty in the sixth minute of injury time to draw 1-1 at Burnley in the Premier League on Wednesday, damaging its already-slim chances of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.

Chris Wood converted the spot kick after Wolves substitute Matt Doherty was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area.

It cancelled out a volley from Raul Jimenez from the edge of the area in the 76th minute, which looked like earning sixth-place Wolves a victory that would have lifted the team to within a point of Leicester and Manchester United.

However, Wolves is three points behind them, with a much inferior goal difference and having played an extra game.