Wout Faes’ disaster own goals hand Liverpool victory; West Ham lose again

LIVERPOOL: Leicester defender Wout Faes had an evening to forget as Liverpool ended the year by closing the gap to the Premier League’s top four.

Faes became just the fourth player to score two own goals in a Premier League game, helping Liverpool come from behind to beat Leicester 2-1 on Friday in a match marked by defensive errors from both sides.

After a tough start to the season, Liverpool are now just two points behind fourth-place Tottenham heading into 2023 following a run of four straight wins.

West Ham, meanwhile, is staring at a crisis after a fifth straight loss. David Moyes’ team conceded two goals against the run of play to lose 2-0 at home against Brentford, and the London club could find itself in last place once the rest of the weekend games are played.

Both games started with a tribute to Pele, who died Thursday at the age of 82, as will the rest of the weekend fixtures.

At Anfield, Liverpool gifted the hosts the lead in the fourth minute with some calamitous defending as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was allowed to run straight down the middle of the pitch unopposed after a long goal kick to chip the ball over Alisson Becker.

But on a night when Liverpool’s forward were repeatedly off target, they got some much needed help from Faes.

The Belgian center-back had disastrous seven-minute spell before halftime as he first ignored a shout from his goalkeeper Danny Ward to leave a low cross from Alexander-Arnold and lunged in to make an attempted clearance, only to mishit the ball so it looped over Ward and in at the far post.

Darwin Nunez was then played through on goal by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and dinked a shot over Ward that bounced back off the far post. The back-tracking Faes tried to clear the ball