Mohamed Salah scored his 24th Premier League goal of the season as Liverpool moved up to second place with a 2-0 home win against former manager Rafael Benitez s Newcastle United.
Salah struck the opener, finding the net for his seventh appearance in a row for the Reds, maintaining a stunning run of goalscoring since arriving at Anfield from Roma.
Newcastle deployed a packed defence but Salah found a way through before half-time, finishing off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain s pass to put Liverpool on track for a solid win ahead of Tuesday s Champions League visit of Porto.
And when Liverpool cut Newcastle open again, Sadio Mane finishing off a fine team move to score the 200th league goal of Jurgen Klopp s reign, the game was effectively over as a contest.
Beni…
Jose Mourinho says he has not yet been tipped off about the Chelsea team, having claimed he received some inside information ahead of Tottenham s previous Premier League meeting with their London rivals.
Spurs travelled to Stamford Bridge in February, their second tussle with the Blues since Mourinho had been appointed the previous November.
Chelsea beat Spurs 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a month into Mourinho s reign, though the Portuguese appeared to have the upper hand in the return meeting earlier this year.
Mourinho claimed he had been given an insight into Chelsea s formation and starting XI, though he did not identify his source.
However, Chelsea again emerged victorious, beating Spurs 2-1 thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alo…
With this weekend s stacked schedule opening up again on Saturday afternoon, we have another host of noteworthy meetings from across the continent. On that note, for those of you looking to stick on a Saturday acca, we have searched far and wide to find you a handful of helpful tips.
Saturday 13th February
BST 15:00 Grimsby vs Tranmere Rovers
After being left stunned by that shock 1-0 loss against relegation scrappers Stevenage on the road in midweek, Tranmere should be smelling a golden chance to make an immediate return to winning ways. Still shocking many across League Two since opening the New Year, Keith Hill s side now have a third-tier return at the top of their agenda. Despite dealing with a string of off-field issues last year, the Whites open this …
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Looking to pick up a crucial first-leg advantage on Thursday night, Ajax will travel to the Huvepharma Arena when they meet Ludogorets.
Ludogorets
Starting with the hosts, extending on their Europa League qualifying adventure earlier in the month as they secured an action-packed 6-3 aggregate victory against Astana, Ludogorets will be desperate to spring a major upset in midweek. However, despite mounting a stellar second-leg comeback at the Huvepharma Arena on August 17th, the Bulgarian heavyweights will be more than aware that they face a stern challenge over the next week. Failing to pick up any kind of momentum over the weekend while on domestic duties as they slumped to a toothless 1-0 loss at the hands of Cherno More, Ivaylo Pete…
Joe Hart stressed a consistency of message will help Celtic deal with major disruption in central defence.
Brendan Rodgers has lost Cameron Carter-Vickers, Stephen Welsh and summer signing Maik Nawrocki to injury for about eight weeks.
The blows came quickly in the wake of Carl Starfelt’s exit, while Yuki Kobayashi will also miss games against St Johnstone and Rangers.
Gustaf Lagerbielke is set to make his cinch Premiership debut against Saints on Saturday, while Liam Scales could come in for his first Celtic appearance in 18 months after spending last season on loan at Aberdeen.
Hart said: “I have had a few different partners to play with this season, but the message has been pretty consistent.
“A large percentage (of games) were obviously …
Ramires has penned a new four year deal at Chelsea,.
The Brazil international has been at Stamford Bridge since signing from Benfica in the summer of 2010, and has played for them two hundred and thirty-six times scoring thirty-six goals.
During his time with the club so far, he has won the Premier League, League Cup, FA Cup, Europa League and Champions League while he was named the London club’s Player of the Year in 2012.
He has also been capped fifty-two times for his country, scoring four times and was part of the Brazil squads that attended both the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and last summer’s tournament in his home country.
Chelsea, fresh from being eliminated from the League Cup on penalties by Stoke City, host Liverpool on Saturday an…
Rangers chief executive Charles Green has predicted that the Glaswegian side will be playing in English football within five years.
Scotland s most successful club are even prepared to start as low as the Conference and work their way up to the Premier League, with Green ready to go to court to make it happen.
Green also believes that the presence of the Old Firm in English football would be hugely beneficial to the game south of Scotland.
Whether it is next week, because the English authorities change their mind, or in five to 10 years, Rangers and Celtic will leave Scotland, Green told the Daily Mirror.
I would like to think within five years. I say to English clubs: Don t be afraid of the unknown. There will be cross-border leagues and that will chan…
Jamie Vardy thinks England s World Cup squad have a similar spirit to that of Leicester City s shock Premier League champions of 2015-16.
Gareth Southgate s side head into their opening match in Volgograd on Monday in good form, having gone 10 matches without defeat since a 3-2 friendly loss to France last June.
A relatively low level of expectations among supporters, coupled with a strong sense of unity within the camp, has also helped to create a quiet optimism around an England side who were knocked out of Euro 2016 by Iceland.
Midfielder Jordan Henderson has previously said they should take inspiration from Leicester, who stunned the football world by winning the top-flight title two years ago.
And Vardy, a crucial part of that famous triumph, can s…
Paul Clement has warned in-demand Gylfi Sigurdsson to remember his failed spell at Tottenham before rushing to leave Swansea City.
Sigurdsson won Swansea s Player of the Year award for a second straight season after his superb Premier League haul of nine goals and 13 assists helped them to secure survival.
But Everton have been heavily linked with a £25million move for the Iceland international, prompting Clement s advice to think carefully after he struggled for regular games during his two years at Spurs between 2012 and 2014.
I think Gylfi has a unique situation, said Clement.
He was here on loan and then he went to Tottenham, which was set to be the next step in his career.
It didn t work out, he came back here and has done really well. He…
Rafael Benitez has refuted suggestions he moved to Chinese Super League side Dalian Yifang for financial reasons and says he left Newcastle United because he could no longer trust the owners.
Newcastle s managing director, Lee Charnley, said over the weekend that Benitez moved to China for the money after the Spaniard left St James Park following the expiry of his contract at the end of June.
Magpies owner Mike Ashley accused Benitez of making unrealistic wage demands and went on to name ex-Sunderland manager Steve Bruce as his replacement.
Benitez has reacted strongly to Charnley s comments, saying that three years of unfulfilled promises meant he could no longer trust the club s hierarchy.
I tried to do my best every day, even staying when we went down…