A magnificent seven and Liverpool ride high at the top of the Premiership
Liverpool thrashed Crystal Palace 7-0 at Selhurst Park to secure top spot in the Premier League for Christmas. Takumi Minamino put the Reds in front after three minutes, before Sadio Mane added a second and Roberto Firmino finished off a slick counter-attack just on half-time.
Captain Jordan Henderson curled in a fourth for the visitors seven minutes into the second half and Firmino grabbed his second just after the hour.
Mohamed Salah came off the bench to score twice in the last 10 minutes as the champions wrapped up a convincing victory.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp said: “The problems and challenges don’t get smaller. For the first time now in what feels like ages we don’t play on Tuesday immediately again. “I think Crystal Palace felt today a little bit how hard it is to play Wednesday night and Saturday at 12.30pm again. It was tough for us as well, so I don’t think about being top of the table or whatever.
“We are just happy we won the game and now we have more time to recover than we ever had before this season.” Palace boss, Roy Hodgson admitted: “We are humiliated by the result. We take it very badly and for most of us in the dressing room we have not been on the end of a 7-0 defeat and I can’t think of anything positive to say.” Manchester City won 1-0 at Southampton and sit sixth. Raheem Sterling broke the deadlock after 16 minutes when he converted a low cross from Kevin De Bruyne.
The Saints, who had put themselves up to third in the table on the back of just one defeat from 11 games, saw striker Danny Ings, just back from a knee injury, forced off before the break.
City defender John Stones almost put a cross from Nathan Tella into his own net, while at the other end Saints keeper Alex Mccarthy pulled off a finger-tip save to push over Ilkay Gundogan’s rising drive as the visitors closed out a hard-earned win. Everton beat Arsenal 2-1 at Goodison Park to climb above Tottenham into second place, five points behind their Merseyside rivals.
The Toffees went ahead after 22 minutes when Dominic Calvert-lewin’s header went in off defender Rob Holding. Arsenal were level after 35 minutes when Nicolas Pepe converted a penalty after Yerry Mina had tripped Ainsley Maitland-niles.
Everton got themselves back in front before half-time when defender Mina made amends by heading home a corner. Arsenal went close to an equaliser early in the second half when David Luiz’s shot deflected against the post after Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford had spilled a high cross.
Mikel Arteta’s men, however, could not find a way back into the match, as the club’s worst start to a top-flight season since 1974-75 continued following a fourth defeat in the past five league games.
At St James’ Park, Newcastle and Fulham shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw. Fulham took the lead in comical fashion as the ball hit Toon’s Matt Ritchie in the face and fell into the net. Fulham equalised in the second half through Callum Wilson’s penalty after Joachim Andersen brought him down. Andersen was sent off for denying the Newcastle man a clear goal-scoing opportunity.