MY ACCOUNT
Liverpool suffered a major blow to their title hopes when they stumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Leicester City.
Ademola Lookman scored, netting in consecutive Premier League appearances for the first time in his career, having grabbed a goal in the 6-3 Boxing Day defeat at Manchester City.
The former Everton player’s contribution, after a rare penalty miss from Mohamed Salah, means City’s lead in the title race stands at six points at the halfway stage in the season.
West Ham and Crystal Palace also won on Tuesday, while Southampton battled for a point against Tottenham.
After a big result in the context of the title race, Stats Perform takes a look at the pick of Tuesday’s Opta data.
Leicester City 1-0 Liverpool: Salah miss hurts as ex-Everton man Lookman sinks Reds
After converting 15 consecutive Premier League penalties, Salah missed at Leicester, and it was that kind of frustrating game for Liverpool.
It was just Salah’s second ever miss from the spot in the English top flight and his first since October 2017 against Huddersfield Town. From then on, he had been immaculate, so when Kasper Schmeichel pulled off a save at the King Power Stadium it was a major surprise. Having said that, since the start of 2020, Schmeichel has saved more penalties in the Premier League than any other goalkeeper, with the latest stop his third in this period.
The result was also a major turn up, Leicester winning consecutive league matches against Liverpool for the first time since April 1999, thanks to Lookman’s second-half strike.
Liverpool failed to score for the first time in 29 Premier League games and for the first time in 28 away fixtures across all competitions, as Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers celebrated a big win against one of his former clubs.
The Reds had been unbeaten in 35 December games since a 4-3 loss to Bournemouth in 2016, but their year ends on a negative note.
Southampton 1-1 Tottenham: Kane scores again but Spurs denied a winner
Tottenham’s Harry Kane has made a habit of getting the better of Southampton’s defence during his stellar career, but this time he had to settle for a penalty equaliser at St Mary’s Stadium. By firing past Fraser Forster to level up after James Ward-Prowse’s opener, Kane ensured Antonio Conte became the first Tottenham manager to go unbeaten in the first seven league games of a Spurs career.
Kane has now been directly involved in 17 goals in 12 Premier League starts against Southampton (11 goals, six assists), and he was only denied a winner by a controversial VAR offside call.
A fine early strike from Ward-Prowse gave the Saints midfielder a goal for a third successive game. The last time he scored in three straight matches was back in March 2019, and the third goal in that run also came against Spurs.
Perhaps Southampton fans were not expecting their team to hold on. After all, the last time they won their final game of a calendar year was all the way back in 2010, when they beat Huddersfield Town 4-1 in a League One fixture.
The dismissal of Mohammed Salisu, who fouled Son Heung-min to give away the penalty that Kane tucked away, certainly hurt Southampton. Indeed, since Ralph Hasenhuttl’s first Premier League game in charge of Southampton in December 2018, only Arsenal (13) have been shown more red cards in the competition than Saints (11).
Crystal Palace 3-0 Norwich: No Zaha, no Gallagher, no problem for Eagles
Wilfried Zaha was suspended and Conor Gallagher was also absent, but Palace were three goals to the good by half-time against bottom side Norwich.
It was Odsonne Edouard who stepped up to shine, scoring the home side’s opening goal from the penalty spot before claiming assists as Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jeffrey Schlupp boosted the lead.
His three goal involvements followed the former Celtic striker having just four (three goals, one assist) across his previous 15 games in the Premier League.
Palace finished the day in 10th place and have impressed many under the leadership of manager Patrick Vieira, losing just once and scoring 18 goals in their 10 Premier League home games since the Frenchman came in, taking 17 points from those fixtures.
This was just Palace’s fourth win in their last 25 games without star man Zaha (D3, L18), but they have not lost in their last five when he has been absent.
Norwich have conceded a league-high six penalties this season and have only scored eight goals in 19 games – the joint-lowest tally in a top-flight season after as many matches, alongside Leicester in 1977-78.
Watford 1-4 West Ham: Worrying times for Ranieri
Despite impressive wins over Everton and Manchester United early in Claudio Ranieri’s reign, the Italian’s Watford team are in trouble now after a fifth consecutive defeat.
An early opener here from Emmanuel Dennis was a red herring. Watford were mauled as Tomas Soucek, Said Benrahma, Mark Noble and Nikola Vlasic scored for the Hammers.
The result means West Ham won 22 Premier League games in 2021, and only in 1959 (23) have they enjoyed more top-flight league wins in a calendar year.
West Ham have also clawed back 12 points from losing positions this season, more than any other side.
Captain Noble netted the Hammers’ third from the penalty spot, his first Premier League goal for 706 days since he scored in January 2020 against Leicester.
It was Noble’s fifth successful penalty against Watford in the competition, with only the Premier League’s record scorer Alan Shearer having put away more spot-kicks against a team in the competition, netting seven against Everton.
