Liverpool held by Burnley to extend winless run, joy for Chelsea
A Florian Wirtz strike was cancelled out by Marcus Edwards as Liverpool were left ruing a missed penalty by Dominik Szoboszlai in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with lowly Burnley, the hosts’ fourth Premier League stalemate in a row.
Waves of attacks kept 19th-placed Burnley’s backline pinned deep in the first half and Liverpool could have led when Cody Gakpo was brought down by Florentino Luis, but Szoboszlai’s spot-kick rattled the crossbar.
Sustained pressure paid off in the 42nd minute, however, when Hugo Ekitike scampered into the box and his close-range shot bounced off the keeper before reaching Curtis Jones who set up Wirtz to finish.
Burnley levelled after 65 minutes when Edwards broke into the box chasing a through ball and fired home, leaving Liverpool seven points below the top three.
Chelsea beat Brentford 2-0 in manager Rosenior’s league debut
New Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior oversaw a 2-0 win for the Blues over west London rivals Brentford on Saturday in his first Premier League match since taking charge at Stamford Bridge, settled by a Joao Pedro strike and a Cole Palmer penalty.
After a run of nine league games with only one win – most of which was under former coach Enzo Maresca who left the club on January 1 – Rosenior had to watch as Brentford wasted a string of chances.
It was Chelsea who found the net, however, when Pedro turned and fired a bullet shot into the top corner of Caoimhin Kelleher’s net in the 26th minute. Palmer doubled Chelsea’s lead from the penalty spot in the 76th minute after Kelleher failed to control the ball and tripped substitute Liam Delap.
The win pushed Chelsea up to sixth in the table, leapfrogging Brentford who had been unbeaten in six games.