Liverpool down Arsenal to jump to third place

After Manchester United and an outof-sorts Zlatan Ibrahimovic missed their chance to gain ground in the battle for Champions League places with a wasteful 1-1 draw against Bournemouth, Juergen Klopp’s men at last rediscovered some of their old swagger. Liverpool won only their third game in 13 matches in 2017 with goals from Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Georginio Wijnaldum to move onto 52 points, ahead of Manchester City on goal difference and two clear of Arsenal, who are now fifth. Chelsea, still the runaway leaders on 63 points, play at West Ham United on Monday while, on Sunday, second-placed Tottenham Hotspur, on 53, host Everton, and Manchester City, 52, visit Sunderland. Liverpool produced a dominant first-half performance to take command with goals from Firmino and Mane but Arsene Wenger got his team selection wrong by leaving Alexis Sanchez on the bench. 

Forced to bring on his key striker at halftime to chase the game, Wenger saw Sanchez set up a goal for Danny Welbeck before Wijnaldum sealed a deserved Liverpool victory late on. Earlier, United’s League Cup-winning hero Ibrahimovic missed a penalty and 10-man Bournemouth battled to snatch a point in an incident-packed affair at Old Trafford. United manager Jose Mourinho was left with no complaints after his side again failed to take maximum points from a game they dominated. After a Marcos Rojo goal was answered by a Josh King penalty in a turbulent first half, United were left sixth on 49 points. Ibrahimovic, fresh from scoring twice in United’s Wembley triumph over Southampton, had a wretched afternoon and not just because his second-half penalty with the score at 1-1 was saved at full stretch by Artur Boruc, who gave an inspired performance. Bournemouth’s Andrew Surman pushed Ibrahimovic over and was sent off for this second yellow card offence. Ibrahimovic denied he had acted out of retaliation. “My intention was not to injure him but to protect myself,” he said.