SCHOOL EDITION 24 APRIL 2024 - Flipbook - Page 29
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WEDNESDAY APRIL 24 2024
Premier League Fulham 1 Liverpool 3
Klopp heaps praise on Reds for
a ‘complete’ second-half display
Liverpool boss now turns his attentions to derby clash with Everton
REUBEN ROSSO-POWELL
J
URGEN Klopp lauded Liverpool’s “complete” second-half performance after
they secured a 3-1 victory at
Fulham to move level on points
with top-of-the-table Arsenal.
Liverpool regained their winning touch in the Premier League
after last week’s 1-0 home defeat to
Crystal Palace as they enjoyed three
points with goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch and
Diogo Jota.
Timothy Castagne had equalised
for the Cottagers with his rst goal
for the club in the rst half but it was
not enough as Klopp’s men showed
their class after the break.
“The second half was a complete
performance, if you want,” Klopp
said.
“It was our best performance so
far that we’ve had against Fulham.
I thought the next step was to win
today, the boys did that and it was
really good. We created much more
chances, we could’ve scored more
often. I’m really happy with the performance and hopefully nobody got
hurt and we will see because we have
to recover quickly as we’re playing
on Wednesday.
“We’re in the situation we are at
the moment because of the character of these boys. Nobody expected
us to be here and we are and that’s
because of the boys.”
Alexander-Arnold’s 32nd-minute
free-kick was the pick of the goals af-
“
STANDINGS
P
Arsenal
33
Liverpool
33
Man City
32
Aston Villa 34
Tottenham 32
Newcastle 32
Man Utd
32
West Ham 34
Chelsea
31
Brighton
32
Wolves
33
Fulham
34
B’mouth
33
C Palace
33
Brentford
34
Everton
33
Nottm Forest 34
Luton
34
Burnley
34
She昀昀 Utd
33
We’re in the situation
we are at the
moment because
of the character of
these boys. Nobody
expected us to be
here and we are and
that’s because of the
boys
Jurgan Klopp
W
23
22
22
20
18
15
15
13
13
11
12
12
11
9
9
10
7
6
5
3
D
5
8
7
6
6
5
5
9
8
11
7
6
9
9
8
8
9
7
8
7
L
5
3
3
8
8
12
12
12
10
10
14
16
13
15
17
15
18
21
21
23
F
77
75
76
71
65
69
47
54
61
52
46
50
48
42
52
34
42
47
37
31
A
26
32
32
50
49
52
48
63
52
50
53
54
60
56
59
48
60
75
69
88
Pts
74
74
73
66
60
50
50
48
47
44
43
42
42
36
35
30
26
25
23
16
l Everton deducted six points and N Forest
deducted four points for rules breaches
ter his stunning strike gave the Reds
the lead.
Klopp believes “nobody plays
like” the full-back after he returned
from a knee injury at Aneld last
week. When asked how important
it is to have Alexander-Arnold back
in the side, Klopp added: “It’s super
important.
“Nobody is like Trent so that’s
how it is. The way we play with him
can be different so it’s super helpful
and I’m really happy about that.
“It’s good for once to have all the
big guns around.
“It’s a great free-kick and he has
that from time to time. We needed it,
it was a great goal, the other goals
were good. For long periods of time
Trent was exceptional, superb.”
Luton 1 Brentford 5; She昀케eld Utd 1 Burnley
4; Wolves 0 Arsenal 2; Everton 2 Nottm
Forest 0; Crystal Palace 5 West Ham 2;
Aston Villa 3 Bournemouth 1; Fulham 1
Liverpool 3
Tomorrow
Arsenal v Chelsea (8pm)
Wednesday April 24 (8pm unless stated)
Wolves v Bournemouth (7.45pm); C Palace
v Newcastle; Man United v She昀케eld United;
Everton v Liverpool
Thursday April 25 Brighton v Man City
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp shows his delight at the 昀椀nal whistle
Fulham boss Marco Silva admitted the defending in the lead-up to
Liverpool’s second and third goals
needed to be better as his side rued
PICTURE: PA
a leaky performance at the back.
Silva said: “I think the third goal
killed the game, we were very loose
on the right. It was one moment we
should be stronger in the challenge
because we were soft and it was a
moment to stop the situation before
Jota scored.
“It was hard to concede the
second and third in the second
half. After that it was hard for us to
react.”
Wolves 0 Arsenal 2
Triumphant Gunners ‘need protected’
JONATHAN VEAL
A
RSENAL boss Mikel Arteta
stood in unison with Manchester City counterpart
Pep Guardiola in condemning the xture schedule.
Guardiola said it was “unacceptable” that his side had to play an FA
Cup semi-nal less than 72 hours
after being in action in the Champions League on Wednesday night as
they beat Chelsea at Wembley on
Saturday tea-time.
The Gunners’ plight was arguably
worse as they were also in Europe on
Wednesday night but had to travel
back from Germany on Thursday following their Champions League exit
to Bayern Munich.
They made light of that quick
turnaround as they beat Wolves 2-0
on Saturday to go back to the top
of the Premier League before they
play again tomorrow night against
Chelsea.
“It’s not about us, Pep or myself,
it’s about the well-being of the players,” Arteta said after Leandro Trossard and Martin Odegaard goals sent
his side one point above City.
“Especially when you are competing in European competition,
everything has to be competed in the
same way. You cannot have a team
that hasn’t played for seven days or
three days before and has more recovery time and you have to play in
the Premier League or the FA Cup.
“It is not right. If you look at it
any angle it’s not right. If you want
to protect and you always talk about
the players and the protagonists,
let’s protect them and think about
them and do everything we can to
Martin Odegaard sealed the win in
injury-time
give them the maximum time so they
can recover and they can maintain
the show they put on every week.
“We stayed in Munich, I think we
had two hours sleep, wake up and we
started to talk about Wolves rst of
all and then understand what we had
to do to win the game.
“The boys were unbelievable.
You look at the amount of games we
have played in the last few weeks,
the type of games we have played
and the attitude and the way they
have run today is top.”
It was a good recovery from the
Gunners after a horror week where
their title hopes were damaged by
a 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa last
week before their Champions League
exit in Munich.
But they could be four points
clear of City by the time Guardiola’s
side next play as they try to wrestle
control of a thrilling title race.
Arteta added: “It was really good,
I really liked the performance, the result, the clean sheet but also the way
individually and a team they showed
they still have a step forward to
make.
“We realised we want to be involved in big competitions, ghting
for the Champions League, ghting
for the Premier League, the level it
requires, we have to do something
special. You have to have that love to
compete.”
Wolves battled hard but are crippled by injuries, with the majority of
their key attacking players sidelined.
They are now six games without a
win, but boss Gary O’Neil was proud.
“I thought it was an incredible
performance, it exceeded my expectation of what we were able to produce today,” he said.
“We didn’t deserve to lose 2-0,
losing 1-0 and not quite being able to
break them down is probably as bad
as it should have been for us.”
