Liverpool’s Premier League title defence suffered a damaging blow as Brighton earned a shock 1-0 win at Anfield, while Manchester City moved three points clear at the top with a 2-0 victory against Burnley on Wednesday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side paid the price for a sloppy display as Steven Alzate’s second half strike gave struggling Brighton a memorable success at the expense of the injury-hit champions.
Brighton’s first away league win against Liverpool since 1982 was secured in the 56th minute when Dan Burn headed a cross towards Alzate and the Colombia midfielder flicked his shot inside the far post.
Liverpool are languishing in fourth place and trail Manchester City by seven points, with the leaders holding a game in hand.
City on top
Pep Guardiola’s side had watched Manchester United draw level on points with them on Tuesday after their bitter rivals crushed Southampton 9-0.
But City underlined their determination to hold onto top spot with a composed, mature display at Turf Moor.
Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring after a mistake from Burnley keeper Nick Pope and Raheem Sterling grabbed the second before half-time.
Elsewhere, Leicester beat struggling Fulham 2-0 to improve their superb away league record.
Despite the absence of injured leading scorer Jamie Vardy, Kelechi Iheanacho opened the scoring for Brendan Rodgers’ men and James Justin doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time.
Jesse Lingard scored twice on his West Ham debut to clinch a 3-1 victory at Aston Villa. While Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Gylfi Sigurdsson scored in Everton’s 2-1 victory at Leeds.