Suarez stars for Liverpool in Fulham rout

Chelsea draw as the Reds and Southampton romp to four-goal wins to snatch spots in the English Premier League top three.

 

Chelsea took until the sixth minute of stoppage time to salvage a draw against West Bromwich Albion, while Liverpool and Southampton have turned on the style with four-goal wins in the English Premier League.
Luis Suarez's double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast club's impressive start to the season on Saturday.
Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home.
Goals from Shane Long and Stephane Sessegnon put West Brom on course for a first win at Chelsea in 35 years until Steven Reid was penalised for fouling Ramires in the fourth minute of stoppage time and Eden Hazard equalized from
the penalty spot.
Arsenal will finish the weekend top of the standings regardless of whether the north London club can win at Manchester United on Sunday, given its two-point lead over Liverpool.
Chelsea are four points behind the front-runners, although it could have been worse for Jose Mourinho.

Our reaction could be 'die or fight for life,''' Mourinho said. "And our team fought for life. Jose Mourinho, Chelsea manager

The Portuguese manager's 65-game unbeaten league home record at Chelsea was looking under threat until referee Andre Marriner pointed to the spot in stoppage time.

Chelsea winger Eden Hazard cut in from the left and saw his shot parried by Boaz Myhill. West Brom defender Liam Ridgewell then dithered and remained static, leaving Samuel Eto'o to score his third goal of the week.

In the second half, West Brom's Long headed against the outside of the post and then found the target on the hour.
Eight minutes later, West Brom were in front - as Ridgewell made up for the blunder that allowed Chelsea to go in front.
After breaking down the left flank, Ridgewell fed Sessegnon, whose shot easily beat Cech.
West Brom had to soak up sustained Chelsea pressure to protect the lead.
"Our reaction could be 'die or fight for life,''' Mourinho said. "And our team fought for life.''
Fortune favored Chelsea with the late penalty won by Ramires.
"He started going down early, he started going down before the contact,'' said West Brom manager Steve Clarke, Mourinho's assistant at Chelsea during his first stint in charge from 2004-07.
At Anfield, Fulham gifted Liverpool the lead when Fernando Amorebieta headed the ball inadvertently into his own goal in the 23rd minute after Steven Gerrard sent a free kick into the penalty area.
Three minutes later there was another goal, from another header - this time from a Liverpool player as defender Martin Skrtel met Gerrard's corner.
Suarez, who initially thought he diverted Amorebieta's header into the goal, then did get on the scoresheet by slotting home in the 36th.
The Uruguay striker took his tally to eight goals in six league matches since returning from a 10-game biting ban by wrapping up the win in the 54th after Gerrard turned provider again.
Southampton surprise
Surprise package Southampton are just a point behind Liverpool.
Morgan Schneiderlin headed Southampton in front after 16 minutes against Hull after being set up by Adam Lallana, who then won a penalty after being brought down by goalkeeper Steve Harper.
Rickie Lambert converted from the spot on the half hour, before Lallana scored a goal of his own seven minutes later, a fine solo effort after jinking through the defence.
Yannick Sagbo pulled one back for Hull from distance early in the second half but Steven Davis completed the comfortable Southampton win in the 88th after meeting Nathaniel Clyne's cross.
At Villa Park, Aston Vila's four-game scoring drought ended when Leandro Bacuna and Libor Kozak clinched a 2-0 win over Cardiff.
But there were no goals at Selhurst Park, as bottom-place Crystal Palace held fifth-place Everton to end a seven-match losing run. Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard started despite hitting his head before the game when he walked into the wing mirror of the team bus.
Norwich City staged a second-half comeback to beat West Ham 3-1 and ease the immediate pressure on manager Chris Hughton. Norwich were booed off by their fans at half-ltime at 1-0 down but were a much more cohesive unit after the
break.

Watching Zlatan

Let the Zlatan-watching commence.

You cannot call yourself a football fan, and come to Paris without seeing Ibrahimovic.

The Swede, just turned 32, is playing probably the most magical football on the planet right now. This is the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era, but Ibrahimovic is so good that he's being mentioned in the same breath even as those two. That's something.

The last year has been a brutal one for teams coming up against the 6ft 5in striker. When "Ibra" gets you between his teeth, he doesn't let go. Thus his four goals for Sweden against England last November – including that goal – and four more in Paris Saint-Germain's 4-0 thrashing of Anderlecht in the Champions League two weeks ago.

Next to get in the ring, on Saturday, were Nice.

If the south coast team found the conditions of a wet and cold Paris night less than ideal, it soon got hotter in the Parc des Princes. This 1970s ground has one of the best atmospheres in European football, with the tribunes of Boulogne and Auteuil behind each goal competing for decibel levels. All match, and all-standing.

A few years ago a player of Ibrahimovic's calibre playing for PSG would have been almost inconceivable, but – apart from the Qatari cash, and the increasingly-better players around him – you can see why the Swede likes playing here.

Head for heights: Ibrahimovic scores his third to wrap up a 3-1 win and put PSG four points clear in Ligue 1 [AP]

The boy from the rough immigrant-heavy Malmö suburb of Rosengård would be at home among the mecs of Auteuil, even with many of them and their counterparts from Boulogne having been banished in a crackdown on hooliganism (you can imagine the young Ibrahimovic, who happily admits to stealing cars in his youth, joining them in their exile from the Parc).

He gave them reason to begin their chants of "Ibra! Ibra! Ibra! Ibra!" soon enough. Within seconds he had opened up space for Edinson Cavani to be released on goal by Javier Pastore, only for play to be pulled back for an infringement.

The threat grew as Ibrahimovic, playing a patient and economical game in contrast to the hurrying style of his strike partner Cavani, got closer to scoring. A chest-down and deflected stab over in the 12th minute, a dummy to allow Cavani to have a strike ruled out for offside 12 minutes later, and a grubbing effort under the keeper and into the net, again ruled out, shortly after.

He then looked like he might just get angry after having his shirt tugged as he ran though on Nice keeper Luca Veronese, with the referee waving away the appeals.

With six minutes to go to half time, the inevitable – and you really feel that with Ibrahimovic, it is inevitable – happened.

A long, dipping cross from Gregory van der Wiel from the right, and under it, a huge Swede. No fancy backflick needed this time, Ibrahimovic's studs steering it past the challenge of Veronese.

Cue one of the only stadium announcers in football who avoids giving a twee feel to proceedings. "Zlataan!" he yelled into his mic, answered by a roar of "Ibrahimovic!" from the crowd, four times. Every goalscorer gets that treatment. What a place to play.

He wasn't quite done for the half. In injury time, he covered ground like a velociraptor to win a free kick outside the box, before heading just wide from the cross.
Damage

In the second half, Ibrahimovic chose to do damage in a different way. No longer alone up front, he dropped deep and took a short pass in space from Maxwell, who sprinted to join nearly everyone else in the box. Let Ibra do it.

He did. The striker's ball forward over the top was perfectly placed at Cavani's feet. An inch further and it was keeper's ball. As it was, Cavani got a touch, was brought down, and Ibrahimovic stroked the penalty to the right of Veronese for 2-0.

I think I want to do better than last year, of course that's what I'm aiming, and my job is to do better. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ligue 1 top-scorer in 2012-13

Their superiority seemed to make PSG casual, and a spell of pressure from Nice led to a goal from centre-back Nemanja Pejcinovic with 20 minutes to play. It was hard not to immediately look at Ibrahimovic, alone in the other half, to measure his disapproval.

If he disapproved, he channelled his anger effectively six minutes later. Lucas was brought on as a substitute, and within seconds had provided a regulation cross from the right that Ibrahimovic nodded home for his hat-trick, and his eighth goal in Ligue 1 this season.

There was time for him to dispute an injury-time offside call before the final whistle, after which he stayed on the pitch with the matchball to salute each side of the ground. The French now have a verb, Zlataner, literally meaning "to Zlatan" or to crush in a Zlatan-fashion. Nice had joined the growing list of teams Zlataned by the Swede.

"I think I want to do better than last year, of course that's what I'm aiming, and my job is to do better," Ibrahimovic, who scored 30 goals in 34 games last season, said into Al Jazeera's mobile phone after the match.

"To see that I'm still developing and to work hard…no, I want to do better than last year but the important thing is that the team win and we're ahead now because Monaco lose points, so that's good.

"The team is better today than the last year, it's all about knowing each other and playing more time together. The more you play together, the better it is. And we're more confident now, last year we were champions and this year it's easier to play.

"I think we play now with three central midfielders and I think that's the big change. For me, I play like I played last year I like to move around and play my game."

Bigger tests than Nice or Anderlecht will come if PSG and Ibrahimovic are to go one better than their Champions League quarter-final defeat on penalties to Barcelona last year. Could they even lift that trophy?

If Zlatan keeps playing his game, nothing is impossible.

Messi injury mars Barca win

Lionel Messi out for up to eight weeks after Argentinian gets third leg injury of season in 4-1 win over Real Betis.

 

Lionel Messi will be out from between six and eight weeks after being withdrawn due to injury for the third time this season in Barcelona's clash with Real Betis, which the Catalans won 4-1 to extend their advantage in La Liga.

Messi pulled up as he tried to accelerate with the ball at his feet before being replaced by Andres Iniesta.
His club confirmed on Monday that the 26-year-old will miss the final two matches in the Champions League group stage for Barcelona, against Ajax Amsterdam and Celtic.

Barca have already qualified for the last 16, which takes place in late February.

Messi will also miss Argentina's friendlies against Ecuador, on November 15, and Bosnia, on November 18.

The four-time World Player of the Year has suffered from a series of muscular problems since pulling a hamstring against Paris Saint-Germain back in April.

He returned from that injury just 10 days later to help Barca past the French champions and into the semi-finals of the Champions League.

However, his season was ended by a recurrence of the injury against Atletico Madrid in May.

The Argentine was also substituted with a hamstring problem against Atletico in August and pulled up with a thigh problem in Barca's win over Almeria at the end of September.

Messi has failed to score in La Liga since returning from that injury, marking his longest run without a league goal in over two years.

However, he had appeared to have returned to form when he scored twice in Barca's 3-1 win over AC Milan in midweek.
Barca clear

In his absence on Sunday, Neymar, Pedro and two goals from Cesc Fabregas gave Barcelona a 4-1 win over Betis that put them three clear of Atletico Madrid.

Atletico had been denied a couple of hours on top of La Liga when Juanfran put the ball in his own net late on in a 1-1 draw at Villarreal earlier.

Diego Simeone's side were on course for a victory after a Villarreal own-goal in the second minute.

Juanfran's cross forced Mario to head into his own net under pressure from Koke, and the visitors then put in a typically abrasive performance in an intense tussle.

Villarreal were finally rewarded for their endeavour when Jeremy Perbet got to the line and crossed to the near post where striker Ike Uche slid in with Juanfran, and the Atletico defender poked the ball over the line in the 79th.

"We were facing very strong opponents that are playing very well and are in good form," Simeone said.

"Defensively we did very well. We didn't have clear chances, but we did control the ball.

"In the second half we improved a bit but it is an important point against a rival for the Champions League positions. I congratulate the players for the effort they are putting in."

Second-placed Atletico moved on to 34 points from 13 games.

Real Madrid sit third with 31 points after Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in their 5-1 home rout of Real Sociedad on Saturday. Promoted Villarreal are fourth with 24.

Earlier, there were whistles at Mestalla after Miroslav Djukic's Valencia came from behind to draw 2-2 against his former club Real Valladolid with a 75th-minute strike from substitute Sofiane Feghouli.

The hosts got off to a woeful start, Ever Banega hoofing a penalty over the bar after only five minutes, and they then conceded a ninth-minute Javi Guerra header.

Colombia striker Dorlan Pabon's long-range effort put Valencia level in the 29th, and after Valladolid notched a second through Gilberto Garcia just after the re-start, Feghouli rescued a point for Djukic's inconsistent side.

Sevilla ended a run of 22 consecutive road games in La Liga without a win when they triumphed 3-1 at Espanyol.

The Andalusians last won an away league fixture in September 2012, beating Deportivo La Coruna 2-0, and coach Unai Emery was feeling the heat after five games without a win in all competitions.

Quick goals from Federico Fazio and Vitolo gave Sevilla the advantage and Carlos Bacca made sure of the points with an impressive third in the 58th minute, running from the halfway line to fire home.