Hits & Misses: Old greats step up for Liverpool, Villa set up perfect season finish
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Salah and Van Dijk step up for Reds Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Everton’s match against Liverpool in the Premier League Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk have won the lot at Liverpool so you could detect a certain reluctance from them to overstate the significance of their 2-1 win in the first ever Merseyside derby at Hill Dickinson Stadium. Everton 1-2 Liverpool - Match report and highlightsAs it happened | Teams | StatsLive Premier League table | Watch FREE PL highlightsThe pair have been much maligned this season and understandably so with Salah's level, in particular, dipping alarmingly.
Despite taking just five points from six matches with last weekend's draw at Nottm Forest, seven days later the Villans are all-but home and hosed in the race for the Champions League and emphatically into the semi-finals of the Europa League.They've not made things easy for themselves this season, failing to win a game or even score a goal until late September and their normally reliable top scorer Ollie Watkins netting only once between the start of February and Sunday's win over Sunderland.Aston Villa 3-2 Sunderland - Match report and highlightsAs it happened | Teams | StatsBut after a double from the England forward and the latest of late wins to move 10 points clear inside the top five, things are looking as rosy as they have done all year.Conceivably, by the time of Villa's Europa League semi-final first leg with Forest a week on Thursday, they can be mathematically guaranteed of a Champions League spot - or near enough - while Vitor Pereira's side are unlikely to be out of the woods of Premier League survival.There's a reason Unai Emery is such a master of the tournament. Yet again, everything is falling into place at the right time.Ron WalkerEverton's defeat means there's everything to play for in race for Europe Image: Beto pulled Everton level in the Merseyside derby - but they were cruelly beaten late on Everton haven't played in Europe since 2017/18, but had they won the Merseyside derby, they would have stormed up to sixth and into pole position for a place in next season's Europa League.The fact they did not win means the battle to finish in sixth and seventh in the final month of the season should be gripping.Right now, Chelsea sit sixth, with Brentford in seventh.
This race is far from run.Dan LongGibbs-White leads from the front in Forest fightback Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Nottingham Forest’s match against Burnley in the Premier League Morgan Gibbs-White was the undisputed star of the show as Nottingham Forest, leading from the front as a true captain.Forest knew that a win would greatly boost their chances of avoiding relegation, but they were made to work for it after a flat first half.Nottingham Forest 4-1 Burnley - Match report and highlightsAs it happened | Teams | StatsIn those moments, you need your senior players to step up, hold themselves and their team accountable and give everything for the cause - Gibbs-White epitomised that and more. All of his finishes were superb for his first career hat-trick, although Burnley have to ask why he was allowed so much space for all three goals.Forest won't mind at all though, with Vitor Pereira saying of his captain: "He's a top player with a character, even when the first half was not his best… He showed what a captain must do in a difficult situation."The Forest hierarchy have made some poor decisions this season, but convincing Gibbs-White to stay in the summer was their best business of all.Charlotte MarshInconsistency costs Burnley yet againNottingham Forest had not won at home in the Premier League since December 14 heading into this weekend, and Burnley would have smelt an opportunity.This would have been enforced further with the ultimate psychological sucker punch in a relegation showdown as they went ahead just before the break.And for 60-odd minutes, Burnley kept their shape well, did not concede any shots on target and took advantage of a Forest's European exertions on Thursday.Live Premier League table | Watch FREE PL highlightsGot Sky?