Liverpool took over at the top of the Premier League table despite being held to a 0-0 draw against Manchester United in a scrappy match on Sunday.

Juergen Klopp’s side have now drawn three of their last four Premier League games and have 66 points from 27 games while second placed Manchester City, who play Chelsea in the League Cup final later on Sunday, have 65 points from the same number of games.

Klopp looked frustrated and irritated throughout the game as his team struggled to find the attacking verve, which has been the basis of their success this season, against a United side that was forced to make all three changes in the first-half.

The Liverpool manager suggested his team had been affected by the stop-start nature of the first half.

“We didn’t do well to be honest. We take that. It is a point gained because we have one more than before but it doesn’t feel like that,” he said.

“These games are always opened up by one situation. The boys didn’t feel okay. I could see it in their faces. It was strange. I was thinking ‘what is gong on here today’. They lost momentum and rhythm and couldn’t really get it back.”

Liverpool’s supporters struck a different tone, however, as they left the home of their old rivals chanting a reminder of their league position as they focus on the chance to win their first top flight title since 1990.

INJURY WOES

The point means that Liverpool, who have 11 games remaining, will be disappointed not to have taken advantage of an injury-ravaged United, who slip to fifth after Arsenal’s win over Southampton.

Having lost holding midfielder Nemanja Matic to injury before the game, Spanish midfielder Ander Herrera went off in the 20th minute and a limping Juan Mata was replaced by Jesse Lingard five minutes later.

But Lingard did not even last until the break as he suffered what appeared to be a recurrence of his hamstring strain and limped off to be replaced by Alexis Sanchez.

Lingard had the best chance of the half when he was found in the box by Romelu Lukaku with a perfectly threaded pass but Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker was quickly out to foil the England attacker’s attempt to round him.

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“Everything that could have gone wrong in the first half went wrong. We had four injuries – we had to keep Marcus Rashford on – it seemed like it was going to be a tough afternoon,” said United caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Amid those three United injuries, Liverpool also lost their Brazilian forward Roberto Firmino to an ankle injury with Daniel Sturridge pressed into action.

After such a messy first half, neither side were able to truly get into their stride in a disappointing game.

Liverpool defender Joel Matip turned the ball into his own net but the assistant referee had already signalled that Chris Smalling was off-side before his low cross fell into Matip’s path.

Without Firmino and with Mohamed Salah having a quiet game, Liverpool’s only real opportunity came from a corner but Georginio Wijnaldum headed wide.

“A clean sheet is pleasing because it’s not an easy place to come,” said Liverpool’s James Milner.

“We didn’t get many chances as we would have liked and we’re disappointed not to win the game.

“Hopefully it’s a good point come the end of the season. I just don’t think we were good enough with our movements or final ball,” he said.

ARSENAL 2 SOUTHAMPTON 0

The hosts took the lead after six minutes in bizarre circumstances, Lacazette neatly back-heeling home a pass from Mkhitaryan while the rest of the Arsenal team were still appealing for a penalty after Lucas Torreira took a tumble.

Arsenal doubled the lead 10 minutes later when Southampton keeper Angus Gunn, making his second Premier League appearance, cleared the ball straight into the path of Alex Iwobi.

The Nigeria midfielder bolted forward and passed across goal to the unmarked Mkhitaryan, who thumped a low shot into the corner of the net.

“The second goal was a horrible mistake where we don’t have to take such a risk,” a rather downcast Saints manager Ralph Hassenhuettl told reporters.

The win took Arsenal up to fourth spot on 53 points, one point ahead of Manchester United who were held to a 0-0 draw by Liverpool at Old Trafford. Southampton remain a point below the safety zone with 24 from 27 matches.

Tottenham Hotspur’s ambitions of Premier League glory were dealt a grievous blow on Saturday when not even a goal from their returning talisman Harry Kane could prevent them stumbling to a damaging and contentious 2-1 defeat at Burnley.

Goals from Burnley forwards Chris Wood and Ashley Barnes at Turf Moor left Spurs’ hopes of piling the pressure on the top two, Manchester City and Liverpool, in tatters and Tottenham’s normally serene boss Mauricio Pochettino raging.

Crystal Palace’s Roy Hodgson was left beaming as he became the oldest man to take charge of a Premier League match at the age of 71 years, 198 days — and marked the occasion with a 4-1 win at Leicester City.

Spurs’ shock defeat kept them on 60 points, still five adrift of leaders City and Liverpool, who have the chance to move three points clear at the top when they visit Manchester United on Sunday.

At the other end of the table, Huddersfield Town’s freefall towards the second-tier Championship hurtled on when the league’s bottom club, down to 10 men after captain Tommy Smith’s 20th-minute red card, lost 2-0 at Newcastle United.

With Sunday’s United-Liverpool clash and the Man City-Chelsea League Cup final dominating the weekend’s programme, Pochettino had seen victory over Burnley as imperative to his side’s hopes of maintaining a title challenge.

Yet the usually affable Argentine ended up cutting an angry, frustrated figure at the end of the game, confronting referee Mike Dean over what he clearly felt had been an incorrect decision that led to Burnley’s first goal after 57 minutes.

Spurs had been claiming a goalkick after Jeff Hendrick appeared to touch the ball last before it went out of play but, instead, a corner was awarded to Burnley which resulted in Wood heading home Dwight McNeil’s delivery.

England captain Kane, back after six weeks out with an ankle injury, responded with an equally debatable goal after latching on to a quick Danny Rose throw-in taken from a spot several metres down the pitch from where the ball went out of play.

Burnley manager Sean Dyche felt justice was done, though, when Barnes notched the 83rd-minute winner, although Pochettino was so irritated about the defeat that he was embroiled in an uncharacteristic face-to-face confrontation with Dean.

It was a head-to-head that the Spurs boss appeared to regret.

“You know how important was the game and when you feel so disappointed and upset, you make some mistakes,” he said.

“We made some mistakes on the pitch and I made some mistakes afterwards on the pitch. I need to go to the dressing room and drink some water but what happened, happened.”

He seemed resigned that Spurs’ title hopes were now over.

“If we didn’t win, we cannot put pressure and we cannot think now of being a real contender. It is a massive opportunity lost for us,” he said.

While Pochettino lost his composure, Hodgson was all smiles after his side won at Leicester with a double from Wilfried Zaha, Michy Batshuayi’s first goal for the club and a Luka Milivojevic penalty.

Asked on BT Sport how old he felt, Hodgson laughed: “I stopped at 60, anyway – I shall be 60 until I stop working! Age is a number, and it’s really how you feel and how capable you are of doing

Things look grim for Huddersfield after Smith was sent off for a lunging 20th-minute challenge on Newcastle’s exciting record signing Miguel Almiron at St James’ Park and the home side eased to victory with second-half goals from Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez.

It was Huddersfield’s 13th defeat in 14 league matches and left them in a hopeless position, stranded six points behind Fulham and 14 adrift of 17th-placed Cardiff City.

Newcastle, with a third straight home win under Rafa Benitez, moved up to 15th, two points behind 14th-placed Burnley and Palace, 13th.

In a remarkable match at Dean Court featuring three penalties, Joshua King scored one and missed another for Bournemouth while Wolverhampton Wanderers earned a 1-1 draw with Raul Jimenez’s 83rd-minute spot-kick.

In Friday’s fixtures Fulham fell deeper into relegation trouble with a 3-1 Premier League defeat by West Ham United at London Stadium on Friday.

Claudio Ranieri’s 19th-placed side made the ideal start, grabbing the lead in the third minute with former Liverpool forward Ryan Babel scoring from close range after he had earlier missed a golden chance.

There was controversy about West Ham’s equaliser when Mexican striker Javier Hernandez stooped to head in from close range but replays suggested the ball went in off his arm.

Issa Diop’s first Premier League goal, with a header five minutes before the break, put West Ham in charge and while Fulham produced some decent football after the break, they rarely threatened.

Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini made their returns for West Ham as substitutes.

But it was not until stoppage time that the Hammers made sure of the win as Michail Antonio powerfully headed home a cross from Arnautovic.

Gerard Deulofeu scored Watford’s first top-flight hat-trick since 1986 as they boosted their hopes of a Europa League spot by cruising to victory at Cardiff.

Deulofeu put the Hornets in front on 18 minutes before two goals in the space of as many second-half minutes ended any hope of a fightback from the hosts, who played a role in their own downfall with some woeful defending.

The Spaniard opened the scoring after Bruno Manga gave the ball away, and doubled the advantage after a quick counter-attack. He completed his hat-trick after Harry Arter surrendered the ball tamely.

Deulofeu then set up Troy Deeney for a tap-in as Watford took a 4-0 lead.

Cardiff arguably could have done better for the visitors’ opening three goals, though they were aggrieved at 1-0 that they were not awarded what looked a clear penalty when Daryl Janmaat brought down Josh Murphy.

They did manage a consolation when Sol Bamba bundled home, but the four-goal margin was restored when Deeney scored his second from Will Hughes’ cross in injury time.

Victory sends Watford up to seventh.

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