Liverpool’s unbeaten run of success in this season’s English Premier League (EPL) ended in unfathomable fashion on Saturday as struggling Watford hammered the European champions 3-0.
Ismaila Sarr inspired the extraordinary upset, stunning off-key Liverpool with two goals in six second half minutes at their ecstatic Vicarage Road Stadium.
He then set up team captain Troy Deeney with a third for the team who had started the day one from bottom, 55 points behind the runaway leaders.
Liverpool’s first league defeat of the season in their 28th match meant the end of their hopes of going the whole league campaign unbeaten.
They would have been the new “Invincibles’’ and emulate Arsenal’s feat of 2003/2004 and Preston North End’s in 1888/1889.
It also concluded their run of 44 league matches without defeat stretching back to January 2019.
It came on the day they were expected to surpass champions Manchester City by creating a new English top-flight record of 19 successive league victories.
The setback will doubtless not stop Juergen Klopp’s men going on to lift their first English title for 30 years as they remain 22 points ahead of their nearest pursuers Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Yet their season’s aura of domestic invincibility was demolished on Saturday.
“Our best performance by a country mile. No one gives us a prayer or a hope for this one,” said Deeney, who praised man-of-the-match Sarr as an “unbelievable player, unbelievable talent’’.
Klopp had no complaints.
“They did exactly what they wanted to do, and we did not. That’s how football works,” shrugged the German. “You have to accept it. It’s not so easy, but we were not good enough tonight.”
Liverpool had previously dropped only two points in the league this season —- their draw at Manchester United in October.
But from the start, Watford attacked them with a vigour that belied their struggles in the league.
Watford, who had not won any of their previous five league games, quickly looked the more likely to break the deadlock in the first half.
Gerard Deulofeu was proving to be Liverpool’s main tormentor before he was stretchered off with a knee injury that manager Nigel Pearson described as “bad”.
Yet it was only when the Senegalese winger Sarr struck twice just before the hour mark that the Hornets dared to dream.
First he poked home from close range after Liverpool had failed to deal with a throw-in.
Then, after Will Hughes had set up an attack with a neat backheel, he powered forward and lifted the ball over the advancing Alisson.
Sarr then completed his fairytale day by latching on to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s poor back pass and setting up Deeney, although he did miss a good chance to complete his hat-trick.
Liverpool never gave up and Adam Lallana hit the post with one thumping drive.
But, for the first time in the league this season, they had been thoroughly outplayed, as Klopp acknowledged with his generous on-field congratulations to his opponents.
“If you win, good. If you lose, try to do it in the right manner and do it like a man,” Klopp said.
For Watford, these were crucial points, as Pearson’s men moved out of the bottom three on goal difference into 17th place.
“I think that performance surpassed everything else we’ve delivered so far. You’ve got to earn the right to beat a side as good as Liverpool,” said Pearson.
As for Liverpool’s setback, captain Virgil van Dijk said: “Losing hurts, the records are only for the media, we didn’t mention it once.
“We keep going. We want to win the next game in the FA Cup and then in the league against Bournemouth, that’s the only way forward”.
Meanwhile, Chelsea stormed back from a goal down to snatch a 2-2 draw away to AFC Bournemouth in their Premier League clash at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Midfielder Marco Alonso struck twice for the visitors who were in need of the points as much as the hosts.
Both sides played open football and Chelsea took the lead in the 33rd minute when Reece James crossed for Olivier Giroud to send his effort onto the crossbar.
Alonso was on hand to smash home the rebound.
Bournemouth bounced back with a headed goal from Jefferson Lerma nine minutes after the break.
And three minutes later, they were ahead when Joshua King tapped the ball home from close range after a superb ball in from the right by Jack Stacey.
Jolted into all-out attack, Chelsea substitute Michy Batshuayi had a goal ruled out for offside moments after coming on, but they continued to bombard the Bournemouth box with set-pieces and crosses.
Their efforts paid off with five minutes of normal time left as Mason Mount fired a rocket which goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale could only parry and Alonso reacted quickest to head home.
Chelsea stay in fourth position on 45 points, while Bournemouth are still hovering above the drop zone on 27 points, two ahead of 17th-placed Aston Villa.
Also, West Ham United produced an excellent performance to defeat Southampton 3-1 on Saturday and provisionally climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone.
The result lifted the Hammers one place to 17th on 27 points from 28 games, one more than 18th-placed Aston Villa who have a game in hand as they meet Manchester City in the League Cup final on Sunday.
Jarrod Bowen fired West ham ahead with his first goal for the club since his January move from Championship side Hull City.
Sebastian Haller and Michail Antonio sealed the win after Michael Obafemi had equalised for Southampton.
Bowen struck in the 15th minute with a clinical finish before Obafemi levelled in the 31st, sweeping the ball in with a first-time shot from a James Ward-Prowse low cross.
Haller restored the home team’s advantage shortly before halftime as he beat Saints goalkeeper, Alex McCarthy, to a looping cross from the left and slid in to prod the ball home from a tight angle.
Antonio put the game beyond Southampton’s reach when he steered the ball past McCarthy after another superb assist by Pablo Fornals defence-splitting pass through the middle.
