LONDON: Liverpool’s 2-0 victory against Watford increased their lead to 10 points at the top of the Premier League table after second-placed Leicester slipped up at home to Norwich.

Mohamed Salah’s double took his tally to nine league goals and extended the Reds’ unbeaten start to the season to 17 games

Liverpool are unbeaten in 34 Premier League games (W29 D5), the third-longest run in the history of the competition after Arsenal (49) between May 2003-October 2004 and Chelsea (40) between October 2004-October 2005.

They now fly out to Qatar for the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup in which they face Flamengo of Brazil on Wednesday.

Leicester fought back from a goal down to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw against Norwich, with a Tim Krul own goal cancelling out Teemu Pukki’s opener in the first half.

John Fleck’s second-half double gave Sheffield United three points to move up to fifth in the table with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Bramall Lane.

The Blades now sit just four points behind Chelsea and a Champions League place after the Blues were beaten 1-0 at home by Bournemouth through Dan Gosling’s late winner, awarded after a video assistant referee (VAR) check for offside.

Burnley emerged victorious from another low-scoring encounter as Chris Wood’s 58th-minute header was enough to seal a 1-0 home win over Newcastle at Turf Moor.

West Ham relieved the pressure on manager Manuel Pellegrini with a 1-0 win at Southampton. Sebastian Haller scored his first goal for the Hammers since October before Michail Antonio had a second ruled out by VAR after the ball struck his hand in the build-up to the goal.

###########