Goals from Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold helped Liverpool edged past embattled Newcastle United and moved to within a point of Premier League leaders Manchester City.
After tonight’s games, City are atop the log with 41 points and the Reds are on 40 points.
The Reds made a bright start but it was Newcastle who took a surprise lead with former Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey whipping a superb 25-yard strike into the bottom corner.
The advantage didn’t last long, however, and parity came in controversial circumstances. Despite Isaac Hayden going down with a head injury at a corner, referee Mike Dean allowed play to continue and waved away Newcastle’s protests after Diogo Jota popped up at the back post to poke home the equaliser.
Newcastle had a great chance to strike back immediately in what was a frantic first quarter of the match but Alisson stooped low to deny Allan Saint-Maximin.
And then Liverpool made the visitors pay shortly after as an error from Shelvey after being put under pressure by Joelinton’s sloppy pass allowed Salah to edge the home side ahead
Newcastle battled away in the second half and felt they should have had a penalty when Ryan Fraser went down after a challenge from Trent Alexander-Arnold but Dean again waved away their protests.
Alexander-Arnold then secured the win with one of the goals of the season, firing a vicious 30-yard shot into the top corner and nearly through the net.
In a further blow to Newcastle, Saint-Maximin limped off late on with what appeared to be a calf injury.
Trent Alexander Arnold after the game claimed they hadn’t done anything wrong by platobg to the whistle in the aftermath of the Liverpool first goal.
Izuchukwu OkosiIzuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.