Manchester United vs Tottenham LIVE: Premier League result and final score after Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick
Follow live coverage as Antonio Conte’s Spurs travel to Old Trafford in a pivotal match in the race to finish in the top four of the Premier League
Tottenham travel to Manchester United in the evening kick-off in the Premier League with the outcome likely to be pivotal in the race for a top four finish.
Spurs went down 3-0 at home to the Red Devils last October with both sides under different managers. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Nuno Espirito Santo have since been replaced by Ralf Rangnick and Antonio Conte, while Arsenal are the pace-setters in fourth after an impressive run of form from Mikel Arteta’s side, most recently in their slick attacking display at Watford.
Discussion has centred around Conte’s future, which will be decided at the end of the season as the Italian has demaned the club match his ambition with facts and not words: “For sure at the moment there is only one truth - I am committed to this club for another year. For sure it is true that I would like this - to fight for the future, to fight to be competitive, to fight to win and not only to finish fourth in the league, because I repeat, that is not my ambition.
“My ambition is to be competitive and to fight to win. I want this and I know my heart, my soul, my mind wants these things. I hope myself and the club match each other in this situation. For sure, you need in the future to have other important steps and to have ambition. And it needs to be ambition with facts, not only with words.” Follow live goal and score updates, build-up, analysis, reaction and more from Old Trafford below:
Brighton vs Liverpool: Team changes
Graham Potter makes four changes to the Brighton side that lost to Newcastle last time out. Jakub Moder, Pascal Gross, Shane Duffy and Danny Welbeck all drop out with Alexis Mac Allister, Yves Bissouma, Neal Maupay and Solly March coming in.
Jurgen Klopp swaps out three players from the Liverpool side that lost to Inter Milan during the week. Thiago Alcantara and Curtis Jones are replaced in midfield with Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita. Luis Diaz starts in the forward line in place of Diogo Jota.
Brigton vs Liverpool: Line-ups
Brighton XI: Sanchez, Lamptey, Veltmen, Dunk, Cucurella, Alzate, Bissouma, Mac Allister, March, Trossard, Maupay
Liverpool XI: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Salah, Diaz, Mane
Brighton vs Liverpool: Potter on Lamptey
Brighton manager, Graham Potter, has talked up the versitile Tariq Lamptey saying that the 21-year-old defender is at his best taking the attack to the opposition and Potter hopes to find a way to incorporate his best attriubutes into Brighton’s plans. Potter said:
It’s about using his attributes as well as we can based on the game we want to play.
“Sometimes we have used him high up and sometimes he’s one of the highest up the pitch – I think of the Chelsea game where we’ve used him as a wing-back that’s very pushed on and attacking the backline.
“Ultimately Tariq needs to be doing that, threatening the opposition defenders as much as he can. Sometimes he can do that from right-back or right wing-back or a little bit higher.
“But the fact that he’s so open minded and so ready to help the team makes it easy for me. It’s about finding the right solution for him.”
Brighton vs Liverpool: Premier League standings
Brighton’s recent run of four straight defeats in the Premier League has dropped them into the bottom half of the table. They aren’t really in danger of being dragged into a relegation battle as they are 12 points clear of the drop zone but their chances and hopes of finishing the season in the top seven and earning a spot in Europe next year have been eroded. Graham Potter and his men will now be focusing on positive results and aiming to make it back into the top 10.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are chasing down league leaders Manchester City. They are currently six points behind Pep Guardiola’s men but have a game in hand on the champions. The title race is so tight that Liverpool cannot afford to drop points until they face City on April 10th. Anything other than a win today puts the fate of the Premier League title back in Man City’s hands.
Fantasy Premier League deletes all Russian users from game in response to Ukraine invasion
The Premier League has removed Russian users from their popular Fantasy Premier League game en masse as part of their response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Several Russian users on social media reported that their teams had been deleted on Friday. The mini-league which includes all users based in Russia has also been removed from the game.
The Premier League have confirmed that the decision was taken in line with the league’s wider show of solidarity with Ukraine. Approximately 12,000 user accounts are believed to be affected by the decision.
Fantasy Premier League deletes all Russian users from game
Teams of all Russian users deleted as part of show of support for Ukraine
Brighton vs Liverpool: Recent results
Brighton have lost their last four Premier League games since a 2-0 victory over Watford on February 12th. In that run they’ve been defeated by Man Utd, Burnley and Aston Villa before a 2-1 loss to Newcastle last time out. Ryan Fraser and Fabian Schar both scored inside the first 15 minutes to put the Seagulls on the back foot before Lewis Dunk replied before the hour mark. Brighton pushed for an equaliser, but Newcastle held out for a crucial three points.
Liverpool are unbeaten in the Premier League in 2022. They drew 2-2 with Chelsea on January 1st and have won their seven league games since. However, they suffered their first defeat of the year last time out as Inter Milan defeated them 1-0 at Anfield thanks to an incredible goal from Lautaro Martinez. Though the Reds lost the game they still won this Champions League last-16 tie having won the first leg 2-0 away from home.
Brighton vs Liverpool: Injuries and absentees
Enock Mwepu is back after two months out with a hamstring issue, Jeremy Sarmiento has recovered from a thigh injury but Adam Webster misses the game for Brighton.
Jurgen Klopp has revealed some unnamed players and staff "cannot be involved" today due to Covid-19 with Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk and midfielder Thiago Alcantara all absent from training this week.
Roberto Firmino is back in contention though after missing the last six games with a groin injury.
Brighton vs Liverpool - live coverage
Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Brighton vs Liverpool in the Premier League.
A brilliant run of form has seen Liverpool haul themselves back into the title race and victory at the Amex would move them just three points behind leaders Man City but their long home unbeaten run was ended by Inter in midweek, as the Italian side won the second leg of the last 16 Champions league clash, although the Reds still advanced to the quarter-finals on aggregate.
“I didn’t like part of the performance [against Inter], especially defensively, and that’s a good point to make as if we don’t defend well against Brighton we have a problem,” said Jurgen Klopp on Friday. “Our counter-press was not even close to what I would have expected and we got punished for it.”
Brighton have a three-game unbeaten run against Liverpool - winning one and drawing two of those games - but are badly out of form, having lost their last four games and scoring just one goal in that time.
It all makes for a fascinating lunchtime kick-off at the Amex today.
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