Brighton vs Liverpool: Brighton vs Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp's men labour to victory
Lacklustre Liverpool ground back to winning ways to reaffirm their Premier League lead with a patchy 1-0 victory at Brighton.
Mohamed Salah struck his 14th league goal of the season from the penalty spot as the off-kilter Reds stretched their top-flight advantage over Manchester City back to seven points.
Liverpool failed to produce the kind of statement win to flex their title-challenge muscles following successive defeats to chief rivals City in the league, and Wolves in the FA Cup.
Klopp's men laboured throughout, unable to generate anything like their trademark attacking zeal - but despite that malaise, the visitors still had enough to take all three points.
Good afternoon and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of today's Premier League 3pm kick-offs, with five games taking place as Liverpool look to extend their lead at the top of the table.
Jurgen Klopp’s side will be looking to extend their four-point lead over Manchester City, who don’t play until Monday, as they travel to Brighton and Hove Albion, while Crystal Palace host Watford at Selhurst Park as they look to continue their push away from the relegation battle.
Southampton have the chance to move out of the drop zone as they face Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, while Burnley take on 19th placed Fulham and Cardiff entertain basement side Huddersfield Town in a clash that could he big ramifications for the battle for survival.
Team news is under 10 minutes away, so don't go anywhere as we bring you who's in and who's out ahead of kick-off.
It's a wonder goal! The goal comes over the top into the path of Schurrle and he hits it first time with a dipping volley. The ball hits the underside of the bar and goes into the corner of the goal, Fulham 1 up after two minutes
Watford have been on the front foot. Deulofeu hits the post from 12 yards and the rebound comes out to Pereyra who should have an easy tap in to give Watford the lead but he puts his foot out and hits the same post!
James Ward-Prowse steps up to take the penalty. Schmeichel dives the correct way and almost gets a hand to the ball but it squeezes past him and Southampton have the lead at the King Power Stadium.
Christopher Schindler makes a bad challenge and is shown the yellow card. He's got 80 minutes left to play so he'll need to temper himself for the rest of the game.
Lang runs down the right for Cardiff before putting a great ball into the box, Hoilett comes in to meet it, stumbles and taps the ball to the keeper. Good chance for Cardiff.
Hendricks has two attempts to equalise for Burnley as the home side begin to find their feet. The ball comes into the box for Burnley and Wood gets a glancing header that skims the post and goes wide.
McNeil gets the ball out to Hendricks in space on the far side of the box. The ball comes in and Mee takes a shot, it gets a deflection of Bryan and Burnley are back in the game.
Oh no! Burnley are two up and Fulham have scored two own goals. Denis Odoi tries to get in the way of the ball as it comes into the box and he glances it past Rico in goal and gives Burnley the lead what a turnaround.
Brighton vs Liverpool kicks off at 3:00pm (GMT) on Saturday 12th January.
Where can I watch it?
The match will not be shown live on TV or online in the UK.
Independent Sport will keep you up to date with all the goals as they fly in via our live blog.
Highlights will be shown at 10:20pm on BBC One.
Player to watch…
Roberto Firmino: The Brazilian hasn’t been scoring on a regular basis this season, but his form has picked up in recent weeks. The 27-year-old scored a hat-trick against Arsenal and scored the equaliser in vain against Manchester City. He was rested on Monday night, only coming on as a late substitute, so will be fresh for the visit to the Amex - a stadium he scored at twice in last season’s fixture, which the Reds won 5-1.
Firmino scored a hat-trick against Arsenal (Getty)
Form guide…
Brighton: LLDWDW
Liverpool: WWWWLL
Odds…
Brighton to win: 9/1
Liverpool to win: 3/10
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