GOAL’s Winners And Losers: Liverpool Is Failing On Multiple Fronts

We still have a title race in England! Manchester City’s hopes of winning the Premier League looked to be over after they fell behind to another stunning free-kick from Dominik Szoboszlai at Anfield on Sunday, but Pep Guardiola’s men produced a sensational fightback to defeat Liverpool 2-1 and close the gap to leaders Arsenal to just six points. Over in France, Paris Saint-Germain routed Marseille in La Classique to move back above surprise package Lens at the top of Ligue 1, while both Barcelona and Real Madrid won again this weekend, meaning it’s as you were in Spain, with the Catalans just one point ahead of their great rivals. Meanwhile, in Italy, a previously inconsistent Inter are improving on a weekly basis, and Sunday’s 5-0 demolition of Sassuolo means that Christian Chivu’s side are now eights point clear at the summit of Serie A, although city rivals AC Milan do have a game in hand. As for Bayern Munich, they bounced back from the shock of failing to win a couple of games in the Bundesliga by hammering Hoffenheim to restore their six-point advantage over Borussia Dortmund. But who were the big winners and losers of the latest round of action across the continent? GOAL breaks it all down below… WINNER: Viktor Gyokeres Viktor Gyokeres’ goal against Chelsea in the first leg of Arsenal’s Carabao Cup semi-final was an absolute gift from Robert Sanchez, but we wondered at the time if it might prove a turning point for the struggling Swedish striker – and it’s certainly looking that way now. Gyokeres still isn’t getting involved all that much in the Gunners’ build-up play, but he is starting to play the Erling Haaland role (few touches, loads of goals) quite well. Indeed, no Premier League player has scored more times (six) than the much-maligned £55 million summer signing since January 1. “With Viktor, when you look at him, it’s very difficult to understand his emotions, because he looks straight at you and you don’t really know,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said after Gyokeres bagged two goals from the bench in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Sunderland. “But he doesn’t seem too affected by the real highs or the lows. And that’s what we need, is stability. “He’s very demanding of himself. He’s constantly trying to improve and that’s really, really good. Confidence is the magic word. When you feel confident, when you feel important, when you feel at your best, that’s when you can really take your game to the highest level. We are really behind him in every moment to try to help him, to try to support him. And he is delivering, and he’s in a really good moment now.” Gyokeres obviously still faces a battle to nail down a regular starting spot at Arsenal, particularly with Kai Havertz looking so sharp after his return from injury, but, all of sudden, he’s no longer looking like one of the worst signings of the season. LOSER: Liverpool’s top-five hopes With just six minutes to go at a raucous Anfield on Sunday, Liverpool looked set to kickstart their campaign with a rousing victory over Manchester City. However, a deflected cross changed everything, as the ball found its way to Erling Haaland, who nodded it back towards the six-yard box for the brilliant Bernardo Silva to equalise. Then, in the third minute of injury time, Alisson Becker stupidly brought down Matheus Nunes in the area to gift City a penalty that allowed Haaland to keep his side’s Premier League title challenge alive. Liverpool, of course, have been out of the running since their previous loss to Pep Guardiola’s team all the way back in November, and now they’re in serious danger of even finishing in the top five. Arne Slot predictably praised his reigning but struggling champions for a strong second-half showing against City, while also lamenting the referee’s failure to send off Marc Guehi for denying Mohamed Salah a clear goal-scoring opportunity. However, the cold, hard truth is that there was nothing remotely surprising about Liverpool’s late collapse. Haaland’s penalty was the fourth injury-time winner they’ve conceded this season, which is a joint-record for the Premier League – and there are still 13 games remaining. As a result, Slot came in for further criticism from frustrated Liverpool fans, who have seen their weak-willed team win just one of their last seven matches. There’s a very strong chance, then, that if Liverpool fail to become the first team to beat Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday, and thus fall further behind Chelsea and Manchester United in the pursuit of Champions League qualification for next season, there will be further calls for a change of manager on Merseyside. LOSER: Eddie Howe Kieran Trippier refused to even discuss Eddie Howe’s future as Newcastle boss after Saturday’s shock 3-2 loss at home to Brentford, insisting that the players – and the players alone – were responsible for the Magpies slipping to 12th in the Premier League table. Alan Shearer, meanwhile, pointed the finger of blame at the board, arguing that Howe has been hindered by a disastrous summer transfer market. “We all know it was a tough situation, with the [Alexander] Isak strike, and no sporting director,” the club legend told Match of the Day. “But there’s no doubt, their summer signings, other than Malick Thiaw, haven’t worked as yet. They’ve spent an absolute fortune on four players (Anthony Elanga, Jacob Ramsey, Nick Woltemade and Yone Wissa) and they’re yet to get anywhere near the heights that they did at other football clubs.” However, both Trippier and Shearer are acutely aware of how things work in football. Rightly or wrongly, the buck always stops with the coach, and if Newcastle fail to get back into next season’s Champions League, Howe will be facing the sack – and he knows that himself. “There’s a harsh reality for me,” he told reporters at St. James’ Park. “I think I have to think long and hard about – not my effort, because I can’t question that – but I have to work better, do more. “I have to take responsibility for everything you see on the pitch. I have got to work out solutions.” And fast. Another defeat on Tuesday, at struggling Tottenham, would cast Howe in an even more unfavourable light. Winner: La Masia We argued a couple of transfer windows ago that Barcelona should stop spending what little money they had on new signings until they got their finances completely in order – and instead promote players from La Masia any time the squad was short on numbers. The annual struggle to register players in La Liga was unbecoming of a once-proud social institution. Of course, Joan Laporta & Co. were never going to adopt such a prudent approach, but it remains a viable option given the club’s academy continues to churn out top talent. Lamine Yamal obviously remains the pride of La Masia, and the winger scored his 15th goal of the season in all competitions in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Mallorca – which is just ridiculous when one considers he’s still only 18 years of age. However, two more youth-sector starlets came off the bench in the same game. Marc Bernal (18) was introduced in place of Dani Olmo midway through the second half and, with just seven minutes remaining, produced a fantastically composed finish to score his first goal for Barca – which was immediately followed by the introduction of debutant Tomas Marques (19). “You can see that everyone in the bench celebrated Bernie’s goal,” Flick enthused afterwards. “It was amazing. “I really love this group, I love what I see. The relationships between them are incredible because most come from La Masia. It is different from other clubs.” Say what you will about Barcelona and what they’ve become, but at least they’ve not lost their ability to produce fantastic footballers. LOSER: Ruben Amorim Had Ruben Amorim not talked his way out of a job at the turn of the year, Kobbie Mainoo would have at the very least left Manchester United during the January transfer window. Remember, the homegrown midfielder didn’t start a single Premier League game during the first half of the season and he was keen to leave Old Trafford in search of first-team football, in a desperate bid to get back into the England squad ahead of the World Cup. Amorim’s exit has changed everything for Mainoo, though. He’s played every minute of United’s last four games – all of which have been won – and is once again looking like the prodigious talent who forced his way into Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2024 squad as a teenager. However, while Mainoo’s resurgence is fantastic news for both his club and his country, it reflects horribly on Amorim. “Kobbie is a very, very good player,” former Arsenal striker Ian Wright said after United’s 2-0 win over Tottenham on Saturday, “and I’m just pleased we’re seeing that now. But I think it’s very embarrassing for Ruben Amorim if we’re going to be totally honest. Because what we saw was a Man United youth product not given the opportunity to play and very, very close to leaving the club.” But it isn’t just Mainoo who has been revitalised since Amorim’s dismissal. The entire team has been transformed under Michael Carrick, and while we don’t want to take too much away from the interim coach’s impact, he’s not really done anything revolutionary. He’s mainly just ditched Amorim’s beloved 3-4-3 formation and put players in their best positions. So, whether that will prove enough to secure Carrick the job beyond the end of the season remains to be seen. What we can say for certain, though, is that Amorim’s chances of ever working in England again are now very slim indeed. Winner: Ousmane Dembele There was something sadly predictable about Ousmane Dembele winning the Ballon d’Or while sidelined by injury and, by December, there was a very real fear that the forward’s now customary fitness struggles would hinder his hopes of retaining his title as the world’s best player. However, Dembele has begun 2026 in pretty much the same explosive fashion as 2025, with a brace in Sunday night’s 5-0 rout of Marseille making it five goals in his last five Ligue 1 appearances. His sublime scooped finish against Lille remains the pick of the bunch, but his second strike against OM was a classic illustration of Dembele in full flight, as he blazed past both Leonardo Balerdi and Facundo Medina before blasting the ball into the roof of the net. It was, as Luis Enrique said, “an incredible goal” and paved the way for PSG to send a message to all of their rivals – in France and beyond – with their most complete performance of the season so far. “We wanted to give a strong response, to show that Paris Saint-Germain is still here,” captain Marquinhos admitted. ” Little by little, we are improving physically, tactically and in confidence, and this match was really about showing that. I think we succeeded, with the right approach, intensity and all the ingredients needed for this match in our favour. “All the players felt good, we created lots of chances, we won the ball back high up the pitch and we played well as a team. I think it was a perfect match. We have to keep going like this because big things are coming, big fixtures ahead. It’s up to us to maintain this level until the end of the season to achieve great things.” Certainly, with Dembele back to his best, anything and everything is once again possible for PSG. LOSER: Endrick Paulo Fonseca unsurprisingly and understandably jumped to the defence of Endrick after Lyon’s loan signing from Real Madrid was sent off in Saturday’s 1-0 win at Nantes. It was far from the most malicious act of violent conduct you’ll see, with Endrick rather innocuously kicking out at Dehmaine Tabibou as the pair competed for the ball close to the touchline Fonseca was on shakier ground, though, when he argued that Endrick was being unfairly targeted by opponents. “This is the third match where the opponents have started the game with a lot of aggression towards Endrick,” he said. “I thought these things were a thing of the past, but the intention was clear. They really intended to intimidate Endrick. The referees must protect the talent of a player like Endrick.” While there is undeniably an onus on officials to adequately protect flair players, Fonseca’s comments felt like deflection – because the fact of the matter is that Champions League-chasing Lyon were lucky that Endrick’s petulance didn’t cost them a sixth consecutive Ligue 1 win, which saw them end the weekend third in the table, three points ahead of Marseille. There was absolutely no need for him to get involved with Tabibou with his team already a goal to the good, and one imagines that Fonseca will be telling the Brazil international that he’s going to have to get used to dealing with an awful lot of unwanted attention from defenders if he’s to realise his undoubted superstar potential. What’s more, Endrick can ill-afford to spend any time sitting on the sidelines through suspension if he’s to force his way into the Brazil squad for this summer’s World Cup in North America. WINNER: Napoli As Scott McTominay hobbled off the field during Napoli’s insanely dramatic 3-2 win at Genoa on Saturday, an utterly bewildered Antonio Conte turned to his coaching staff and quipped, “I’ll have to play in a minute!” The Partenopei’s injury crisis might not be that bad just yet, but the situation is certainly serious. The reigning Italian champions went into the game in Liguria without the services of Giovanni Di Lorenzo, David Neres, Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Billy Gilmour, while Matteo Politano and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic were only fit enough for a seat on the bench. The last thing Conte needed, then, was more injuries – and particularly to the talismanic McTominay, who scored Napoli’s second goal, and key defender Alessandro Buongiorno, who was forced off just before the hour mark. Still, while Conte is far from happy with the strength of his squad, he has nothing but admiration for his players, who managed to eke out a 3-2 win at the Luigi Ferraris thanks to Rasmus Hojlund’s 95th-minute penalty – despite playing the last quarter of an hour with just 10 men following Juan Jesus’ dismissal for a second booking. “We never stopped pushing and trying to get the win,” the Napoli coach told DAZN. ” This shows the team never gives in. “Every Sunday seems to bring a new obstacle, I was curious to see how the team would react without Di Lorenzo, who is such an important figure for his quality and charisma. But I saw a strong response from everyone. These are lads who are overcoming everything with pure heart.” LOSER: La Liga Rayo Vallecano’s relegation battle with Real Oviedo was suspended just four hours before the scheduled kick-off because the inclement weather conditions had made the pitch in Madrid unplayable. Oviedo, for their part, expressed sympathy with the plight of their Vallecano counterparts, who have long been at odds with Rayo president Raul Martin Presa over the state of the playing surface at the Campo de Futbol de Vallecas, as well as the training facilities. However, Oviedo, who are bottom of La Liga, six points behind 18th-placed Vallecano, have submitted a formal request to the Spanish Football Association (RFEF) for the game to be awarded in their favour as they believe the correct protocol was not followed. “We are going to fight for the three points – not because we like to win it at the table, but because we think we are being treated unfairly,” club president Martin Pelaez told Cadena SER. ” We have suffered some controversial refereeing decisions in eight or nine games and we are always supporting and adding, but there comes a time when one has to say ‘enough’. We have already paid the toll of being the newly-promoted team. “Our intention is always to compete on the field, but when the regulations are not complied with, it has to be even for everything. With what we are playing for, we are not here to give anything away, we are to fight for what is in our right.” When and how the matter will be resolved is still up in the air at the time of writing, but what’s clear is that this is an administrative mess that Spanish football really could have done without, with Santi Cazorla among those to have stuck the boot into the game’s authorities after Saturday’s controversial postponement. “The reality is that La Liga is light years away from the Premier League in every way,” the former Arsenal midfielder wrote on X. WINNER: Luis Diaz Just a few minutes after Cody Gakpo had been taken off following another ineffective display for Liverpool in Sunday’s loss to Manchester City, Luis Diaz completed a hat-trick in Bayern Munich’s 5-1 rout of Hoffenheim. Admittedly, the two former team-mates were facing teams of wildly contrasting quality, and there have been reports in Germany that, after playing in the notoriously competitive Premier League for three-and-a-half years, Diaz has been taken aback by just how much time and space he has on the ball in the Bundesliga. However, the Colombian is unquestionably still performing at an impressively high level (unlike the painfully one-dimensional Gakpo). After playing an instrumental role in Liverpool’s league title triumph with 13 goals in 36 appearances, Diaz has now matched that tally in just 20 outings for Bayern thanks to a treble that came from just 1.07 xG, prompting CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen to describe the versatile winger as “a whirlwind” leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Max Eberl simply referred to him as a difference-maker. “Although we achieved the win as a group, Luis was the key today,” Bayern’s director of sport said. “Luis always plays with passion and desire. He can also beat several players at times. We’re extremely happy to have him here.” Whereas Liverpool should be lamenting letting him leave. LOSER: Cristian Romero Cristian Romero is understandably frustrated at Tottenham. He “wasn’t feeling well” ahead of last week’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City but, as captain, he felt he had not other option but to play because coach Thomas Frank had “only 11 players available”, which, in a clear shot at the club, the centre-back described as a “disgraceful” situation. However, there was simply no excuse for Romero once again losing his head in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at Manchester United. There were just 28 minutes gone when the Argentine was dismissed for a horribly reckless challenge on Casemiro that effectively cost his team the game. What’s more, because this was Romero’s second sending-off of the season, he is now suspended for Spurs’ next four games, against Newcastle, Arsenal, Fulham, and Crystal Palace – which is a disaster for a struggling side. Consequently, sympathy is now in very short supply for the Spurs skipper. He has made a bad situation much worse with an incredibly costly red card that cannot be construed as a complete dereliction of duty. Romero is meant to be a leader. In reality, though, he’s a liability.