Brighton beat Liverpool as Everton piles misery on Chelsea in Premier League

London, March 22 (IANS) Two goals from veteran striker Danny Welbeck earned Brighton a 2-1 home win over Liverpool, denting the visitors’ hopes of a top-four finish.

Welbeck’s 11th and 12th Premier League goals of the season proved vital. He opened the scoring after 14 minutes, and although Milos Kerkez leveled on the half-hour after a poor defensive error from Lewis Dunk, Welbeck’s second after the break settled the game. Liverpool has now lost 10 of their 31 league matches this campaign.

Everton deepened Chelsea’s misery with a 3-0 win at home, moving up to eighth in the table, just two places and two points behind Liam Rosenior’s side.

Everton produced arguably their finest performance at Hill Dickinson so far to boost their European bid with a superb win over Chelsea.

Two goals from Norberto Beto and one from Iliman Ndiaye gave Everton consecutive home wins, while adding the pain to Chelsea, who have slumped after heavy defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and a home loss to Newcastle United.

Beto gave his side a deserved lead just past the half hour when he raced onto James Garner’s sublime through ball to lift a delicate finish over Robert Sanchez.

Jordan Pickford kept Chelsea’s array of attacking talent at bay with impressive stops either side of half-time from Enzo Fernandez efforts – helping him to his 100th clean sheet for the Club in the process.

And that proved crucial as Beto grabbed his and Everton’s second on 62 minutes, Idrissa Gana Gueye intercepting on halfway, zooming down the right channel and passing inside to the striker, whose first-time shot squeezed under Sanchez and over the line.

Beto then turned provider to wrap up three points with 14 minutes remaining, feeding Iliman Ndiaye who cut inside 14 yards out and curled a sumptuous finish into the top right-hand corner.

It sealed a vital win that lifted the Blues up to seventh in the Premier League table, three points off their Merseyside rivals in fifth ahead of a three-week break.

Leeds United and Brentford play out a 0-0 draw, with the hosts guilty of leaving their push for a winning goal too late as they seek to pull clear of the relegation zone.

Burnley slipped closer to relegation after a 3-1 defeat away to Fulham. Zian Flemming put Burnley ahead, but Josh King and Harry Wilson turned the game around before Raul Jimenez’s stoppage-time penalty sealed the win.

–IANS

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