Liverpool Continue Their Dominance Over Chelsea to Retain Top Spot

Liverpool maintained their position at the top of the Premier League table with a 2-1 victory over visitors Chelsea on Sunday in the eighth round of the competition. The round also saw reigning champions Manchester City fight for a 2-1 win over Wolverhampton.

Liverpool’s win boosted their points tally to 21, keeping them in first place, just a point ahead of Manchester City, who are pursuing a fifth consecutive title. Arsenal, who suffered their first defeat of the season with a 2-0 loss to Bournemouth on Saturday, sit in third with 17 points.

This marks only the third time in the club’s history that Liverpool have won 10 of their first 11 matches in all competitions at the start of a season, replicating their success from the 1960-1961 and 1990-1991 campaigns.

Chelsea started strongly, controlling the opening 20 minutes but failing to seriously trouble Liverpool’s Irish goalkeeper, Caoimhin Kelleher. Liverpool took the lead in the 29th minute when the referee awarded a penalty after Levi Colwill brought down Diogo Jota in the box. Mohamed Salah confidently scored the penalty.

This goal was Salah’s fifth goal in the league this season.

Chelsea leveled the score early in the second half when Senegalese striker Nicolas Jackson received a brilliant through ball from Moisés Caicedo and coolly slotted it past Kelleher in the 48th minute.

This marked Jackson’s fifth goal in his last seven league games.

However, Liverpool responded quickly. Four minutes later, Salah provided an inch-perfect assist to Curtis Jones, who found the back of the net (52).

City Snatch Last-Minute Win Over Wolves

In another encounter, Manchester City secured a late 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton, thanks to a stoppage-time header from defender John Stones.

Pep Guardiola, City’s Spanish manager, made some bold selection choices, starting Belgian winger Jeremy Doku and Brazilian Savinho, while benching English stars Phil Foden and Jack Grealish, who both came on as second-half substitutes.

Reflecting on the late winner, Guardiola said, “We’re not used to scoring last-minute winners like Klopp’s Liverpool, but it’s a great feeling for us.”

The match pitted an unbeaten City side against a struggling Wolverhampton team that had yet to register a win this season and sat second from the bottom of the table.

Wolves took an early lead on the break when right-back Nélson Semedo crossed from the right flank, finding Norwegian striker Jørgen Strand Larsen at the far post for a simple finish in the 7th minute.

Despite City dominating possession, their star striker Erling Haaland was kept quiet by Wolves’ disciplined defense. It’s worth noting that Haaland had scored eight goals in his previous four encounters with Wolverhampton.

City leveled the score in the 33rd minute when Croatian defender Joško Gvardiol unleashed a powerful strike from outside the box that flew into the top corner. This was City’s seventh goal from outside the box this season, already surpassing last season’s total of six.

Wolves goalkeeper José Sá made several crucial saves, denying Bernardo Silva and Savinho, as City applied relentless pressure.

However, it wasn’t until the dying moments of stoppage time that City found the breakthrough. John Stones rose highest to meet a corner and headed home in the 95th minute, securing all three points for the defending champions.

Stones had also rescued a point for City three weeks earlier with another last-gasp goal in their 2-2 draw with Arsenal.

The round finished on Monday evening with Nottingham Forest taking on Crystal Palace.