Liverpool vs Leicester City
All the Liverpool fans who witnessed the match against Leicester City will be contented at the end of 90 minutes at Anfield. Without Salah and Sadio Mane in the starting XI, the Reds played without losing the momentum and won the match comfortably with two goals.
The Reds also closed the gap with the league leaders to nine points, and they also have a game in their hand. Liverpool has the advantage of applying more pressure on Manchester City as they can reduce their lead to six points if they win against Burnley this weekend.
Jota was the goal-scoring hero for Liverpool, but their new star signing Luis Diaz’s sprints made the fans excited, and he has already proved that he can be the replacement for Salah or Mane in the wings. Klopp appreciated him a lot after full time.
“When we saw him playing for Porto, we thought yes, that’s exactly what we want him to do as well,” Klopp said. “On top of that, he seems to be a really smart footballer and has obviously watched Liverpool quite a lot.
“We don’t overload new players with information in the first week and tell them everything what we want them to do, we just have a look and when we looked at him in training, he already looked like a Liverpool player.”
Jota scored his 11th and 12th goals of this season. He scored the first goal in the 34th minute with a close-range finish. The second goal came in the 87th minute to seal the victory.
Leicester City manager Brendon Rodgers said that the team had improved a lot compared to their humiliating defeat in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest. “We’ve restored the pride in our performance,” Rodgers said. The weekend was nowhere near the level we need to be, so it was a tough couple of days.”
Wolves vs Arsenal
Arsenal fought hard with ten men for around 25 minutes to grab all three points at Molineux against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Arsenal opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a goal from Gabriel Magalhaes. The goal came through a corner where the Brazilian defender had to finish from close range.
It was Arsenal’s first goal in all competitions since Bukayo Saka scored in a 2-1 loss to Manchester City on New Year’s Day.
The Gunners had a few more chances in the first half, but Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa ensured their lead would remain 0-1 at the end of the first half.
Gabriel Martinelli was shown two yellow cards in succession in the second half and was sent off in the 69th minute. It was the 12th red card for Arsenal after Mikel Arteta took charge of the team in 2019. The most by any team in Premier League.
The Spanish manager is frustrated to see his team conceding red cards a lot. “We know that playing with 10 men in this league you’re not gonna get points, enough points, the points that we want and we have to stop it,” the Spaniard said.
Luckily, the Gunners held on with ten men and grabbed all three points to keep their chances of finishing in the top four.
