Liverpool's Lead in Premier League Grows to 16 Points as Man City Loses Again

Liverpool's lead in the Premier League has grown to 16 points.
Mohamed Salah's lead in the Golden Boot contest is up to seven goals.
Both races are turning into a procession after Salah converted two second-half penalties for his 26th and 27th goals of the campaign to clinch a 3-1 win for Liverpool at home to last-placed Southampton on Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
It seems a matter of when, not if, Liverpool secures its record-tying 20th English top-flight championship, even if Arsenal — way back in second place — has two games in hand. Liverpool's players have nine games left but surely won't need all of them to seal the title.
Maybe a more staggering statistic is that Manchester City, the winner of the last four titles, is now 23 points behind Liverpool after a 1-0 loss at third-placed Nottingham Forest, whose 83rd-minute winner came from Callum Hudson-Odoi.
City is in fourth place, at least for overnight, and has a fight on its hands just to finish in the top five, which should be enough to qualify for the Champions League this season. Only five points separate City from Fulham in 10th place.
Erling Haaland had a quiet match and — stuck on 20 goals — is now struggling to be the league's top scorer for the third straight season.
Instead, it's Salah heading for the Golden Boot, which he won outright in 2017-18 and shared in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons, and is now up to 184 goals in the Premier League — tied with Man City great Sergio Aguero at No. 5 on the all-time list. Aguero and Salah are the top-scoring foreign players since the Premier League was founded in 1992.
Liverpool not holding back ahead of PSG For Liverpool, the meeting with Southampton came in the middle of two matches in a six-day span against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League's last 16.
Liverpool holds a 1-0 lead after the first leg in Paris on Wednesday and manager Arne Slot opted against mass rotation ahead of the return match on Tuesday. Indeed, Salah played the whole match.
Darwin Nunez started after setting up Harvey Elliott's winner in the French capital and scored himself in the 51st minute, canceling out Will Smallbone's shock opener for Southampton in first-half stoppage time.
Nunez then was fouled for the first penalty slotted home by Salah in the 54th, before the Egypt star notched his second in the 88th after a handball.
“The manager, his head was going for us but it's something you need sometimes," Salah said of Slot's halftime reaction. “Because the first half it was sloppy and we were slow.”
Southampton stayed 13 points from safety and looks destined for an immediate return to the Championship.
Forest on course for Champions League Forest’s improbable bid for Champions League qualification was strengthened by beating City, whose goalkeeper Ederson Moraes was beaten at his near post by Hudson-Odoi’s shot late in a tight game at the City Ground.
A few minutes earlier, Ederson had tipped a curling strike by Hudson-Odoi onto the post.
“I knew I'd get another chance and that one went in, so I'm buzzing,” Hudson-Odoi said.
Forest was battling relegation last season and finished 59 points behind City. Now it is four points ahead of the soon-to-be-deposed champions and has 10 games remaining as the club looks to get back into Europe’s top competition, which Forest famously won in 1979 and ’80 under Brian Clough.
City has lost three of its last five league games, to the current top three of Liverpool, Arsenal and now Forest.
“Every season the Premier League gets better and better,” Guardiola said. “We have 10 finals (to go).”
Narrow wins for Brighton and Villa Joao Pedro converted a penalty in the eighth minute of stoppage time to earn Brighton a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Fulham and lift his team to sixth place — level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea.
Since losing 7-0 at Forest on Feb. 1, Brighton has won six straight games in all competitions — including four in the league.
Aston Villa is a point behind in seventh place after winning 1-0 at Brentford, with Ollie Watkins scoring from a deflected shot in the 49th against his former club. The England striker, who was jeered throughout by the home fans, has six goals in his last six appearances against Brentford.
Crystal Palace beat Ipswich 1-0 thanks to Ismaila Sarr's 82nd-minute goal, while fourth-from-last Wolverhampton pushed six points clear of the relegation zone after drawing 1-1 with Everton in the late game.

England captain Harry Kane sees a real chance of winning the next Ballon d'Or award for the best player in the world, but knows securing silverware with Bayern Munich would be key to fulfilling that dream.

The 31-year-old striker, England's all-time leading goalscorer, has scored 32 goals and provided 11 assists in 37 appearances across all competitions this season for Bayern, helping the German giants top the Bundesliga table and book a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

While no English player has won the Ballon d'Or since former Liverpool striker Michael Owen in 2001, Kane believes his chance of winning soccer's top individual award has been boosted by his August 2023 move from Tottenham Hotspur to Bayern.

"Just being at a club like Bayern Munich has helped push me on even more, confidence-wise and responsibility-wise," Kane told reporters ahead of Friday's FIFA World Cup European qualifier against Albania.

"I feel like I've definitely got better, I've improved, and maybe the 'aura' of me as a player is a bit more respected than what it has been in the past, because you're playing in big games, big nights.

"That's probably what I mean in terms of being respected more worldwide, on the bigger stage. For something like that, you have to win enough team trophies to be considered in that and probably score 40-odd goals, but that is a possibility this season."

Kane said his goal-scoring feats are not always appreciated but he remains motivated as ever.

"It's like when (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi were throwing these crazy numbers out there and the next season they'd score 40 goals instead of 50. It was like they were having a bad season," Kane said.

"People take it for granted and maybe a little bit with England as well. I've scored 69 goals and when you score against Albania or Latvia, or these teams, people just expect it, so it's not spoken about so much.

"If I was 25 now and doing what I'm doing, the excitement around me would maybe be a little bit different to what it is now. That's part of where we are with football ... Maybe people just get a little bit bored of what you do, but I'm certainly not bored. I'm excited for these games and the games ahead."

Liverpool's Lead in Premier League Grows to 16 Points as Man City Loses Again