Liverpool are six points away from sealing a 20th Premier League title after Virgil van Dijk went from zero to hero with a late header to seal a 2-1 win over West Ham.
With Liverpool winning 1-0 thanks to Luis Diaz’s first-half opener from a stunning Mohamed Salah assist, Van Dijk got involved in an awful mix-up with Andy Robertson for the latter to score an own goal in the 86th minute.
But moments later captain Van Dijk rose highest above West Ham substitute Niclas Fullkrug from a corner in front of the Kop to establish Liverpool a 13-point lead at the top of the Premier League.
It can even come sooner. Should Arsenal lose to Ipswich next weekend on Super Sunday, Liverpool will know victory over Leicester, also live on Sky Sports, will mathematically secure the title with five games to spare.
Asked if Liverpool can now “touch the title”, Salah said: “We can say that now. We owe the fans one, especially as when we won it, we won it in lockdown. So, let’s go for it and win it!”
Newcastle United strengthened their push for a Champions League spot in the absence of unwell boss Eddie Howe with a crushing 4-1 win over Manchester United at St James’ Park.
Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim dropped first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana after his two mistakes against Lyon in Thursday’s 2-2 Europa League quarter-final first-leg draw, but replacement Altay Bayındır was guilty of a serious error to seal an easy home win.
The Turkey international clipped a ball straight to Joelinton who headed into the path of Bruno Guimaraes to make it 4-1 in the 77th minute.
By then, though, Newcastle were in complete command.
They were the better side from the first minute to the last and opened the scoring when Alexander Isak’s lobbed pass over the visiting defence ended with Sandro Tonali finding the net.
Italy midfielder Tonali went close to doubling the lead from distance, while Bayındır did well to deny Isak, before Manchester United equalised against the run of play.
Alejandro Garnacho kept his composure eight minutes before the break to shoot beyond Nick Pope for his side’s first goal in three top-flight games.
But Newcastle moved up to fourth spot – just a point behind third-placed Nottingham Forest – when Harvey Barnes put the game out of reach with two second-half goals.
After tapping home Jacob Murphy’s pass across the six-yard area to make it 2-1 in the 49th minute, Barnes produced a ruthless finish 15 minutes later after a slip by Noussair Mazraoui. Bayindir’s howler compounded Manchester United’s misery on Tyneside.
