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Salah hits for Liverpool, Saka keeps Arsenal at top of table

Sports Desk, Oct 16 (EFE).- In Premier League action on Sunday, Liverpool blanked Manchester City 1-0, Manchester United and Newcastle battled to a scoreless draw, VAR review gave Arsenal a 1-0 road win over Leeds United, while Southampton broke West Ham’s streak, forcing them to settle for a 1-1 result, and Chelsea swept to a 2-0 road win over Aston Villa.

Mohamed Salah waited until the 75th minute to get the home team on the board at Anfield stadium, sending the 60,000 fans in the stands into a frenzy, but the game was a tense one with much back-and-forth play between the injury-plagued Liverpool and the hitherto unbeaten reigning Premier League champs, Man City.

The visitors had thought that they had jumped into the lead early in the second half on a Phil Foden strike but VAR canceled the prospective tally.

Man City phenom Erling Haaland tried two headers-on-goal in the first half but didn’t connect, along with a shot that Alisson was able to fend off midway through the second period.

Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp was booted on a straight red card in the 86th minute.

With the win, Liverpool now have 13 points in 10 games, while Man City have 23 points, also in 10 outings, four points behind league-leader Arsenal.

This was the first time this season that Man City had failed to hit pay dirt at the net in a Premier League game.

Earlier on Sunday, Manchester United were frustrated by Newcastle United as the Magpies held out for a goalless draw at Old Trafford.

It was a scrappy affair short on clear goal-scoring chances, although the Red Devils will feel they ought to have won having dominated the second half and created the better openings.

The home team were unable to turn their greater possession into goals, however, as Newcastle repelled wave after wave of attacks.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who had a quiet afternoon, personified Man United’s frustrations when he was substituted for Marcus Rashford, theatrically shaking his head as he stormed off the pitch and sulked from the bench.

And it was Rashford who missed the game’s best chance when he headed Casemiro’s brilliant cross wide as stoppage time expired.

After an impressive first half in which Newcastle looked the brighter, the visitors can consider themselves fortunate that they return to England’s northeast with a share of the spoils, and not than empty-handed.

The draw leaves Man United in fifth place in table, one point ahead of Newcastle in sixth, although the Old Trafford side have played a game less.

Buyako Saka was the man of the hour in Arsenal’s single-tally road win over Leeds United at Elland Road, although a power outage delayed the start of play by 40 minutes With no draws and just one loss so far this season – the loss to Man United – the league-leaders were facing an important challenge in their visit to Leeds, a hard-driving squad with top-quality players, even though they have not managed to beat Arsenal since 2003, and not on their home turf since 2001.

Arsenal, on the other hand, wanted only the win to remain on their perch at the top of the league for another week Saka fired a great shot into the top of the net from an angle in the 35th minute after a pass from team captain Martin Odegaard, motivating Leeds to send in striker Patrick Bamford after the break, whereupon he quickly found the twine only to have the tally ruled out for fouling Arsenal’s Gabriel.

Then, with Leeds pushing hard, Arsenal’s William Saliba handed the ball in the area and Bamford tried the penalty kick but missed. Later, the presiding official expelled Gabriel for striking out at Bamford in stoppage time, providing the home boys another chance to tie things up, but after VAR he reversed both decisions, bringing Gabriel back onto the pitch and canceling the penalty.

Elsewhere, after two consecutive wins, West Ham had its budding victory streak nipped in the bud on Southampton’s home turf, being held to a 1-1 draw.

The home side’s Romain Perraud had gotten the team on the board first in the 20th minute on a controversial goal but the visitors had to wait until minute 64 to even things up.

With the draw, Southampton’s streak of four losses in a row was brought to an end but the team is still down among the bottom three whereas West Ham inched upwards in the table to the 11th spot with 11 points after 10 games.

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