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LONDON , Jan 23 (AP) \u2014 Liverpool reduced the gap at the top of the Premier League to nine points after a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Virgil Van Dijk and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in the first half but Patrick Vieira\u2019s side reduced the deficit through Odsonne Edouard\u2019s goal after the break.<\/p>\n
It took a string of saves by Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker to keep the lead for the visitors before Fabinho scored a penalty in the 89th minute to seal the win that took advantage of leader Manchester City drawing at Southampton on Saturday.<\/p>\n
This was Liverpool\u2019s fifth game without Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane while they are at the African Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n
Andrew Robertson\u2019s corner created the opener for Van Dijk\u2019s header in the eighth minute. It was a poor goal for the hosts to give away and they could not handle Liverpool\u2019s relentless pressing in the opening exchanges with Oxlade-Chamberlain firing off target twice in quick succession.<\/p>\n
But then Robertson spotted the late run of Oxlade-Chamberlain into the area and picked out his teammate with a superb crossfield ball. The midfielder, back after a minor ankle injury, controlled on his chest and rifled into the net in the 32nd.<\/p>\n
Jordan Henderson could have put the game to bed at the start of the second half but he fired wide on the turn after another fine delivery from Robertson.<\/p>\n
Palace did finally get on the scoresheet in the 55th. Jean-Philippe Mateta beat the offside trap to collect Jeffrey Schlupp\u2019s excellent through ball and squared for Edouard to tap in for his sixth goal of the season.<\/p>\n
Joachim Andersen was the next to go close for Palace with a long-range strike that whizzed just wide before Schlupp fired into the side-netting.<\/p>\n
The big moment arrived with seven minutes left when Andersen sent Michael Olise away and his lobbed effort was brilliantly tipped wide by Alisson, who clattered into the post.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s Diogo Jota went through minutes later but missed his kick and then collided into goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.<\/p>\n
After referee Kevin Friend had waved away appeals, VAR called for the official to have another look and he pointed to the spot.<\/p>\n
Fabinho tucked away the penalty with a minute left to close the gap on City, with Pep Guardiola\u2019s side having also played a game more than Liverpool, which visits the Etihad in April.<\/p>\n
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LONDON , Jan 23 (AP) \u2014 Liverpool reduced the gap at the top of the Premier League to nine points after a 3-1 win at Crystal Palace on Sunday. Virgil Van Dijk and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in the first half but Patrick Vieira\u2019s side reduced the deficit through Odsonne Edouard\u2019s goal after the break. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-182415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-spark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}