Liverpool striker Darwin Nunez scored twice in stoppage time at Brentford to extend the Reds’ lead to seven points.
Darwin Nunez scored twice in stoppage time Liverpool beat Brentford 2-0 to consolidate first place in the Premier League on Saturday.
Second-placed Arsenal will try to claw back the four-point deficit on Liverpool with victory over Aston Villa later on.
Brentford fans jeered Nunez after he came on as a 65th-minute substitute, but the Uruguayan striker responded by turning in Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross in the first minute of added time.
Nunez then finished off the counter-attack two minutes later to secure a first win in three league games for Liverpool, who drew with Manchester United and Nottingham Forest either side and lost to Tottenham in the first leg of their League Cup semi-final.
Liverpool have still only lost one league game all season, at home to Forest in September. The Reds had 37 shots against Brentford and scored the last two.
Justin Kluivert scored his second league hat-trick of the season to inspire Bournemouth to a 4-1 win at Newcastle, whose nine-game winning streak in all competitions came to a convincing end.
The Dutch midfielder scored in the sixth, 44th and second half stoppage time at St James’ Park. Miloš Kerkez scored the fourth goal in the sixth minute of stoppage time. Bruno Guimaraes equalized for fourth-placed Newcastle.
Kluivert, whose father is former Netherlands striker Patrick Kluivert, also scored three goals against Wolverhampton in November. In that game, all of Kluivert’s goals were from penalties, but he scored from open play each time against Newcastle.
Six of Newcastle’s nine straight wins have come in the league, helping the Saudi-led side climb into the top four in their bid to return to the Champions League.
Newcastle striker Alexander Isak failed to score, having previously scored in eight league games in a row. That left him three games short of Leicester striker Jamie Vardy’s record for the longest goalscoring streak in Premier League history.
Bournemouth dominated Newcastle despite a long list of injuries. The south coast side extended their unbeaten run to 11 games and climbed to sixth, level with fifth-placed Chelsea. A fifth-place finish could clinch a place in next season’s Champions League for the first time. “Why not dream big?” Kluivert posed. “We never know where we might end up.”
Penultimate Leicester lost their seventh consecutive league game, 2-0 at Fulham, to pile up the pressure on recently appointed manager Ruud van Nistelrooy.
Van Nistelrooy has won just one of his nine league games – the first against West Ham on 3 December. Emile Smith Rowe and Adama Traore scored for Fulham.
Crystal Palace won at West Ham 2-0 thanks to two goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta in the second half, the second from the penalty spot.
