Liverpool go five points clear as Man City lose again

LONDON :Liverpool opened a five-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-0 home defeat of Aston Villa after Manchester City slumped to a fourth successive defeat as Brighton & Hove Albion hit back to beat champions 2-1 at home on Saturday.

Arne Slot's side made it nine wins from their opening 11 league games with a Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah scoring the goals in a deadly demonstration of counter-attacking.

City took the lead with Erling Haaland scoring his 12th league goal of the campaign but late goals by Joao Pedro and Matt O'Riley stunned Pep Guardiola's side who enter the international break with much to ponder.

Liverpool head into the international break with 28 points from 11 games with City on 23 while Brighton and Hove Albion are in fourth place on 19 points. Third-placed Nottingham Forest could move to 22 points if they beat Newcastle United on Sunday.

Dutchman Slot has enjoyed a remarkable start at Liverpool with 15 wins from his first 17 in charge since replacing the seemingly irreplaceable Juergen Klopp.

His style is more pragmatic than Klopp's but no less spectacular at times, as they showed on Saturday.

Nunez opened the scoring after 20 minutes when Liverpool broke at lightning pace following an Aston Villa corner and after Mohamed Salah was bundled over by Leon Bailey, Nunez took matters into his own hands to round Emiliano Martinez and blast home a shot from a narrow angle.

Villa, whose season has hit a rough patch, were denied an equaliser by some excellent saves by Caoimhin Kelleher but were floored late on when after another counter-attack from deep in Liverpool's half, Salah burst clear to finish in style.

"In general we had control over the game and scored from two counter-attacks which is