EPL: Liverpool, Manchester City record big wins; United held

Manchester drifted further behind in the premier league following another goalless draw Crystal Palace at home.

United now stand 14 points adrift league leaders Manchester City, who thrashed West Ham 4-0 to continue their domestic unbeaten run. They have 35 points after 13 rounds of matches.

Meanwhile, Liverpool, the only other unbeaten team beat Watford 3-0 to jump to second with 33 points from the same number of matches as City and United.

Liverpool rout Watford 3-0

Mohamed Salah opened the scoring as Liverpool thrashed Watford 3-0 to go 13 games unbeaten in the league, their best ever run in the English domestic competition.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunning free-kick in the 76^th minute then added to the score before Roberto Frimino netted a tap-in one minute before time to bring up the victory. But despite the big win, it was far from comfortable for Jurgen Klopp’s side, who had skipper Jordan Henderson sent-off in the second half.

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The home side though would be disappointed that they were not awarded a penalty when full-back Andy Robertson appeared to have fouled Will Hughes while the score was still nil-nil.

But the referee waived away all protest and from the resulting counter-attack, Mo Salah scored after receiving a fine ball following some wonderful footballing display between Firmino and Sadio Mane.

Man City thrash West Ham 4-0

Defending league champions Manchester City cruised to a 4-0 victory over West Ham to extend their unbeaten streak as well as their stay at the top.

Captain David Silva fired City home from the edge of the box in the 11^th minute after Raheem Sterling’s cross had deflected into his path.

Then eight minutes later Leroy Sane burst ahead of former City defender Pablo Zabaleta on the flank and placed a low-cross into the box from which Sterling scored to make 2-0 inside 20 minutes of play.

The England forward then repaid Sane with a similar cross in the 34^th minute with the German national beating defender Fabian Balbuena before slotting the ball home from close range.

Down by three goals, West Ham had a great opportunity to pull one back in the 58^th minute when Michail Antonio was sent through by substitute Javier Hernandez but his shot hit the outside of the right-hand post before going out of play.

The London side were then left with 10-men when Marko Arnautovic hobbled off the pitch with West Ham having used up all of their substitutions.

Sane scored his second in injury-time from a Gabriel Jesus cross to complete the rout.

Manchester United 0-0 Crystal Palace

The draw helped Crystal Palace secure their first points in 12 league games at Old Trafford. Their last victory a 2-1 win in 1989 was also the last time they had managed to steal some points from the Theatre of Dreams.

But coach Roy Hodgson will feel his side should have taken all three had Patrick van Aanholt and Andros Townsend not squandered easy chances in the second half. Both sides also had a goal ruled out for offside.

Cheikhou Kouyate was called on for offside when the midfielder netted home the opener after the ball off Victor Lindelof. United were then punished with a similar decision with Romelu Lukaku adjudged to have strayed offside after the striker scored from an Ashley Young shot rebound.

Goalkeeper David de Gea and Wayne Hennessey also pulled out some brilliant saves to keep their sides alive.