Liverpool Boost Record Bid as Manchester City Crush Newcastle

Liverpool remained on course to set a new Premier League points record after beating Brighton 3-1, while Manchester City returned to winning ways with a dominant 5-0 victory over Newcastle United.

Jurgen Klopp’s champions moved to 92 points following their first away league victory since February. Liverpool needed nine more points from their remaining four matches against Burnley, Arsenal, Chelsea and Newcastle to surpass Manchester City’s record of 100 points set in 2018.

Klopp, however, insisted he was more interested in winning matches than chasing records.

“It’s not important for me. I’m not interested in any of this, but I want to win football games,” he said.

Mohamed Salah opened the scoring after six minutes, taking advantage of poor Brighton defending to register his 22nd goal of the season.

Jordan Henderson doubled Liverpool’s advantage three minutes later with a curling effort from outside the penalty area.

Leandro Trossard pulled one back for Brighton in first-half stoppage time, but Salah secured the victory with a 76th-minute header from Andrew Robertson’s corner.

The win also saw Liverpool reach 30 league victories faster than any other team in English top-flight history.

Manchester City, meanwhile, recovered from their defeat to Southampton by thrashing Newcastle 5-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring after 10 minutes when he converted David Silva’s cross, before Kevin De Bruyne created City’s second for Riyad Mahrez.

Newcastle defender Federico Fernandez then turned the ball into his own net before Silva scored a superb free-kick to make it 4-0.

The Spaniard, who was preparing to leave City at the end of the season, later provided the assist for Raheem Sterling to complete the scoring in stoppage time.

Guardiola praised Silva’s recent form and said City had produced a similar performance to their previous match but had been more clinical in front of goal.

Elsewhere, Wolverhampton Wanderers suffered a setback in their pursuit of Champions League qualification after losing 1-0 to Sheffield United.

John Egan scored a stoppage-time winner to move Sheffield United up to seventh place, one point behind Wolves.

West Ham also missed an opportunity to move further away from the relegation zone after suffering a 1-0 home defeat to Burnley.

Jay Rodriguez scored the decisive goal before half-time, leaving West Ham four points above the bottom three.