Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 8, 2025
4 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleLiverpool extends their Premier League lead with a 3-1 win over Southampton. Nottingham Forest beats Manchester City, boosting their Champions League hopes.
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - Liverpool's march to the Premier League title continued with a 3-1 victory over last-placed Southampton on Saturday as Mohamed Salah bagged a double and Darwin Nunez scored to give them a 16-point provisional lead over Arsenal.
Arne Slot's men have 70 points, while the second-placed Gunners have 54 but two games in hand. They play at Manchester United on Sunday.
Nottingham Forest's Callum Hudson-Odoi struck late in a 1-0 victory over Manchester City that boosted their chances of a top-four finish and a prized place in next year's Champions League.
Last-minute penalty drama gave Brighton & Hove Albion a 2-1 win over Fulham for their fourth consecutive win, while Crystal Palace salvaged a 1-0 win over relegation-threatened Ipswich Town with a late goal from Ismaila Sarr.
Liverpool had to come from a goal down at Anfield after Will Smallbone took advantage of miscommunication between goalkeeper Alisson and Virgil van Dijk just before the break.
The league leaders ran roughshod over the struggling Saints in the second half and Nunez levelled in the 51st minute, then won a penalty three minutes later that Salah fiercely slotted home.
Salah completed his double in the 88th minute with a second goal from the spot after Yukinari Sugawara's hand ball, the Liverpool talisman's 27th league goal this season.
"We need to keep winning games -- it's as simple as that," said Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliott. "It's about taking it game by game and making sure we apply ourselves in the best possible way."
At Nottingham, Hudson-Odoi picked up a diagonal pass from Morgan Gibbs-White before stepping outside Josko Gvardiol and driving the ball between City goalkeeper Ederson and his near post in the 83rd minute.
"I'm absolutely buzzing with the goal," said Hudson-Odoi after his contribution secured Forest their first league win over Manchester City since 1997.
The result in a game of few chances kept this season's surprise team Forest in third on 51 points, putting them in a strong position for their first berth in Europe's elite competition since the mid-1990s.
Reigning league champions City are fourth on 47 points but manager Pep Guardiola is not panicking.
"We have 10 games to qualify (for the Champions League), we have to win games to qualify and we're going to the next one," he said.
BRIGHTON MOVE UP TWO PLACES
A Joao Pedro penalty in added time helped Brighton to snatch a win over Fulham and boost their bid to qualify for European football.
Brighton climbed two places in the standings to sixth with 46 points from 28 games, while Fulham dropped to 10th.
"I work for that. I try to stay calm. I was happy to score the winning goal, three points and I'm very happy. They had their chance to win," match-winner Pedro told the BBC.
Fulham struck first when Raul Jimenez latched on to a cross from Alex Iwobi before slotting home past Bart Verbruggen.
Five minutes later Fulham equalised through Jan Paul van Hecke.
Just as it looked like the spoils would be shared, Pedro was bowled over by Harrison Reed deep in stoppage time and the Brazil international stepped up to calmly slot home the winner.
At Selhurst Park, Palace's victory left them 12th on 39 points, ahead of Saturday's later game between Brentford and Aston Villa, while Ipswich remain in the bottom three in 18th spot on 17 points.
Ipswich racked up 15 goal-scoring chances in an entertaining though often sloppy encounter, but a combination of wasteful finishing and an inspired Dean Henderson in the Palace goal saw them leave empty-handed.
Sarr played the hero when he stole in behind the defence in the 82nd minute to score with a lovely dinked effort.
"The game today was tough but we won. I am happy for myself and the team but we need to keep going and working hard... the first half was tough but in the second we scored and got the three points," Sarr said.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; editing by Clare Fallon)
The article discusses Liverpool's extended lead in the Premier League and Nottingham Forest's victory over Manchester City.
Mohamed Salah scored twice and Darwin Nunez also contributed to Liverpool's victory.
Nottingham Forest defeated Manchester City 1-0 with a late goal from Callum Hudson-Odoi.
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