LONDON – If the English Premier League is to take an enforced break amid another surge in coronavirus cases, Trent Alexander-Arnold gave it quite a send-off.
The Liverpool full back has the perhaps the most dangerous right foot in English soccer and he used it to devastating effect with a late long-range strike to seal a come-from-behind 3-1 win over Newcastle on Thursday.
“A stunner. Unbelievable,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said. “The boy´s shooting technique is on a different level.”
The victory meant Liverpool stayed on the shoulder of league leader Manchester City in what is shaping up to be an exciting title race. Chelsea couldn´t keep pace, though.
A 1-1 draw at home to injury-hit Everton was Chelsea´s latest disappointing result in the league and left the European champions four points behind City.
On current form, the title race is looking like a two-team race, even if it could soon be halted as the league approaches a busy program of festive fixtures.
The growing number of infections among Premier League squads as the omicron variant spreads is being reflected in the number of matches being postponed, almost on a daily basis.
Just before kickoff in Thursday´s games, the league announced half of the weekend fixtures have been called off because of coronavirus outbreaks in many teams.
There have now been nine postponements in a week.
Thursday´s games went ahead, though both Liverpool and Chelsea each had three players unavailable because of positive cases. Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho were among them for Liverpool, while Chelsea was forced to do without strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner.
Liverpool coped better despite conceding a seventh-minute goal to one of its former players, Jonjo Shelvey.
The hosts replied in the first half through Diogo Jota – somewhat controversially while Newcastle midfielder Isaac Hayden was down with an apparent head injury – and Mohamed Salah´s league-high 15th goal of the season.
Alexander-Arnold capped the comeback with his ferocious shot from 25 meters that flew high into the net, just missing referee Mike Dean as he skipped to one side to avoid the ball hitting him.
Everton was missing as many as 12 players because of injury and illness, forcing manager Rafa Benitez to start a makeshift lineup containing three youngsters. Two of them combined for the 77th-minute equalizer.
Jarrad Branthwaite, a 19-year-old defender who has had loan spells at Carlisle and Blackburn in recent seasons, poked in at the far post from a free kick from 20-year-old winger Anthony Gordon.
That canceled out a goal scored seven minutes earlier by Mason Mount, who has now netted in four straight league games.
Chelsea´s slump – the team has won just two of its last five league games – has coincided with the absence of star midfielder N´Golo Kante because of injury, and he was only fit enough to take his place on the bench as an unused substitute.
Kante is likely to make his return when Chelsea visits Wolverhampton on Sunday.
However, Chelsea´s recent weakness in defense was exposed again as Jarrad Branthwaite – a 19-year-old defender only playing because of Everton´s injury crisis – poked in at the far post from a free kick.
Chelsea has only won two of its last five league games and has fallen out of the lead. The team is four points behind first-place Manchester City after 17 games.
Thomas Tuchel´s team drew at home to Manchester United and lost at West Ham in that five-game span, and only beat Leeds last weekend thanks to a stoppage-time penalty.
Chelsea was without strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner and winger Callum Hudson-Odoi after they tested positive for Covid-19. Kai Havertz, who might have filled in as a striker, was also missing after complaining of feeling unwell.
Everton was worse off in terms of absentees, with Richarlison, Andros Townsend and Seamus Coleman joining an already-long injury list this week. Rafa Benitez, a former interim manager at Chelsea, was forced to play youngsters Branthwaite, Anthony Gordon and Ellis Simms, who made his first-team debut up front.
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