Sweet Sixteen: Liverpool's lead continues to grow

Liverpool's lead in the Premier League has grown to 16 points.

Mohamed Salah's lead in the Golden Boot contest is up to seven goals.

Both races are turning into a procession, after Salah converted two second-half penalties for his 26th and 27th goals of the campaign to clinch a 3-1 win for Liverpool at home to last-placed Southampton on Saturday.

It seems a matter of when, not if, Liverpool secures its record-tying 20th English top-flight championship, even if Arsenal — way back in second place — has two games in hand. Liverpool's players have nine games left, but surely won't need all of them to seal the title.

Maybe a more staggering statistic is that Manchester City, the winner of the last four titles, is now 23 points behind Liverpool after a 1-0 loss at third-placed Nottingham Forest, whose 83rd-minute winner came from Callum Hudson-Odoi.

City sat in fourth place overnight on Saturday, and has a fight on its hands just to finish in the top five, which should be enough to qualify for the Champions League this season. Only five points separate City from Fulham in 10th place.

Erling Haaland had a quiet match and — stuck on 20 goals — is now struggling to be the league's top scorer for the third straight season.

Instead, it's Salah heading for the Golden Boot, which he won outright in 2017-18 and shared in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons, and is now up to a total of 184 goals in the Premier League — tied with Man City great Sergio Aguero at No 5 on the all-time list. Aguero and Salah are the topscoring foreign players since the Premier League was founded in 1992.

Reds not holding back

For Liverpool, the meeting with Southampton fell between two matches in six days against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League's last 16.

Liverpool holds a 1-0 lead after the first leg in Paris on Wednesday, and manager Arne Slot opted against mass rotation ahead of the return match on Tuesday. Indeed, Salah played the whole match.

Darwin Nunez started after setting up Harvey Elliott's winner in the French capital, and scored himself in the 51st minute, canceling out Will Smallbone's shock opener for Southampton in first-half stoppage time.

Nunez was then fouled leading to the first penalty slotted home by Salah in the 54th, before the Egypt star notched his second in the 88th after a handball.

"The manager, his head was going for us, but it's something you need sometimes," Salah said of Slot's halftime reaction. "Because the first half it was sloppy, and we were slow."

Southampton finished the day 13 points from safety and looks destined for an immediate return to the Championship.

Europe beckons

Forest's improbable bid for Champions League qualification was strengthened by beating City, whose goalkeeper Ederson Moraes was beaten at his near post by Hudson-Odoi's shot, which came late on in a tight game at the City Ground.

A few minutes earlier, Ederson had tipped a curling strike by Hudson-Odoi onto the post.

"I knew I'd get another chance, and that one went in, so I'm buzzing," Hudson-Odoi said.

Forest was battling relegation last season and finished 59 points behind City. Now, it is four points ahead of the soon-to-be-deposed champion and has 10 games remaining, as the club looks to get back into Europe's top competition, which Forest famously won in 1979 and '80 under Brian Clough.

City has lost three of its last five league games, to the current top three of Liverpool, Arsenal and now Forest.

"Every season the Premier League gets better and better," Pep Guardiola said. "We have 10 finals (to go)."

Joao Pedro converted a penalty in the eighth minute of stoppage time to earn Brighton a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Fulham, lifting his team to sixth place — level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea.

Since losing 7-0 at Forest on Feb 1, Brighton has won six straight games in all competitions — including four in the league.

Aston Villa is a point behind in seventh place after winning 1-0 at Brentford, with Ollie Watkins scoring from a deflected shot in the 49th against his former club. The England striker, who was jeered throughout by the home fans, has six goals in his last six appearances against Brentford.

Crystal Palace beat Ipswich 1-0 thanks to Ismaila Sarr's 82nd-minute goal, while fourth-from-last Wolverhampton pushed six points clear of the relegation zone after drawing 1-1 with Everton.

Agencies via Xinhua