Soccer

Premier League round-up: Diogo Jota rescues point for Liverpool against Fulham at Anfield

Arsenal fail to take advantage in goalless draw at home to Everton; Anthony Elanga’s injury-time winner against Villa sends Forest up to fourth

Liverpool's Diogo Jota scores his side's second goal during the Premier League match against Fulham at Anfield. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
Liverpool's Diogo Jota scores his side's second goal during the Premier League match against Fulham at Anfield. Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA Wire
Sat Dec 14 2024 - 19:55
Liverpool 2 Fulham 2

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot lost his cool but the returning Diogo Jota retained his with a clinical late equaliser to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Fulham and extend the Premier League leaders’ unbeaten run to 19 matches.

Andy Robertson’s first-half red card saw the hosts play more than 82 minutes with 10 men but backed by a fevered Anfield atmosphere they made light of their numerical advantage.

They were rewarded for their positive approach as Jota came off the bench after an 11-match injury absence to score in a dramatic finish.

However, the performance of referee Tony Harrington tested the patience of the usually-calm Slot and his third booking of the season means he will serve a touchline ban at Tottenham next weekend.

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The Reds head coach had criticised the lack of energy in Tuesday’s Champions League win in Girona but after the sending off his side raised the tempo and their game as they harried and hassled Fulham and were eventually rewarded with Cody Gakpo’s equalising diving header.

Robertson had been culpable for Andreas Pereira’s 11th-minute opener and his attempt to recover from a poor touch succeeded only in bringing down Harry Wilson, which Harrington deemed to be a denial of a goalscoring opportunity even though the ball had rolled to Raul Jimenez who shot over.

Arsenal 0 Everton 0

Arsenal’s title challenge suffered another dent after they were held to a goalless draw by Everton at the Emirates.

Six days after they failed to win at Fulham, Arsenal could again manage just one point as they failed to capitalise on the result at Anfield.

Arsenal have now gone three consecutive league matches without scoring from open play, and they remain six points adrift of the Reds having played one match more.

They are also a point behind Chelsea who host Brentford at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. The full-time whistle was greeted by a smattering of boos from a frustrated Emirates crowd.

Nottingham Forest 2 Aston Villa 1

Anthony Elanga’s stoppage-time goal sent Nottingham Forest into the top four as they produced a late turnaround to beat Aston Villa 2-1.

Villa seemed destined to be leaving the City Ground with three points after Jhon Duran’s instinctive header gave them the lead in the 67th minute – moments after goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez defied physics to produce a wonder save and keep the scores level.

But Martinez then bundled Nikola Milenkovic’s 87th-minute header into his own net as Forest drew level before Elanga struck in the third minute of time added on to spark mass scenes of celebration.

The unlikely victory moves Nuno Espirito Santo’s men into the Champions League qualification places and Forest fans are daring to dream after a remarkable turnaround from last season, where they survived on the final day.

Villa will be ruing their late capitulation as they suffered yet another hangover from their midweek Champions League action and boss Unai Emery is struggling to balance the fixture demands.

Ipswich Town's Jack Taylor scores his side's late winner during the Premier League game against Wolves at Molineux. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire
Ipswich Town's Jack Taylor scores his side's late winner during the Premier League game against Wolves at Molineux. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA Wire
Wolves 1 Ipswich Town 2

Ireland international Jack Taylor struck in stoppage time as Ipswich beat Wolves 2-1 at Molineux to push Gary O’Neil closer to the brink.

Matheus Cunha’s 72nd-minute equaliser looked to have saved Wolves from defeat against their fellow strugglers but Taylor was left free to head in from a corner in the fourth minute of time added on, sparking jubilant celebrations for the visitors and angry recriminations among Wolves players.

Rayan Ait-Nouri had to be ushered down the tunnel after the final whistle as arguments broke out within the home ranks, and boos rang down from the stands.

A fourth straight defeat leaves Wolves four points off the bottom of the table, having now conceded 40 league goals, six more than any other side.

Wolves had been on the back foot from the 15th minute, when Ipswich took the lead through a Matt Doherty own goal, although it would have been fairer to put a black mark next to the entire home defence given the mess they got themselves into.

Liam Delap had no right to barge his way past new Wolves skipper Nelson Semedo down the right but managed to get to the byline. His pullback was slightly behind Omari Hutchinson, who rounded goalkeeper Sam Johnstone but saw his shot blocked on the line by Doherty.

Conor Chaplin shot goalwards on the rebound, and though Toti blocked it, his header struck Doherty to roll back over the line.

Newcastle United 4 Leicester City 0

Jacob Murphy scored twice as Newcastle rediscovered their killer touch to condemn Leicester to a 4-0 defeat at St James’ Park.

Murphy rounded off a brilliantly worked set-piece to open the scoring and, after Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak had put the game out of sight, wrapped up victory with the fourth.

It was just a third win in 12 league games for the Magpies and eased some of the pressure on head coach Eddie Howe, while Ruud van Nistelrooy suffered his first defeat since taking charge of Leicester.

In truth, the margin could have been significantly bigger on an afternoon when Howe’s men were utterly dominant in front of a crowd of 52,235 at St James’ Park as they set themselves up nicely for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford on Tyneside.