Liverpool sacked manager Brendan Rodgers
following a 1-1 draw with Everton in the
Premier League on Sunday, while Arsenal
showcased their title credentials by ravaging
Manchester United 3-0.
Rodgers’s three-year Anfield tenure came to an
end when Liverpool released a statement
announcing his dismissal hours after a
Merseyside derby draw that left his team 10th in
the table.
“We would like to place on record our sincere
thanks to Brendan Rodgers for the significant
contribution he has made to the club and
express our gratitude for his hard work and
commitment,” Liverpool’s American owners
Fenway Sports Group said in a statement.
“Although this has been a difficult decision, we
believe it provides us with the best opportunity
for success on the pitch.”
Rodgers, 42, ultimately paid the price for failing
to successfully rebuild a team that had come
within three games of winning the Premier
League title in 2014.
Liverpool finished sixth last season and despite
a second consecutive close-season splurge on
new players, they have made a slow start,
winning only one of their last nine games inside
90 minutes.
In Rodgers’s final game, Liverpool shared the
spoils with Everton after an occasionally ill-
tempered 225th Merseyside derby finished 1-1
at Goodison Park — the sixth draw in seven
meetings between the teams.
Danny Ings put Liverpool ahead in the 41st
minute when he was left unmarked inside the
Everton six-yard box and nodded home James
Milner’s corner.
But untidy defending by Liverpool allowed
Everton to level in first-half stoppage time, with
Romelu Lukaku slamming home after Emre
Can’s attempted clearance had cannoned against
his team-mate Martin Skrtel.
Meanwhile, Alexis Sanchez scored twice as
Arsenal reeled off a stunning 3-0 defeat of
Manchester United that sent Arsene Wenger’s
side up to second.
Sanchez scored with a sixth-minute back-heel
and Mesut Ozil slotted home from Theo
Walcott’s cut-back a minute later before
Sanchez’s 18-yard thunderbolt completed the
scoring in the 19th minute at a giddy Emirates
Stadium.
Sanchez has now scored six goals in three
games and the Chilean’s latest endeavours
helped Arsenal recover from the shock of their
3-2 home defeat by Olympiakos in the
Champions League last Tuesday.
From Petr Cech to Theo Walcott, we only had
superb performances,” Wenger told the BBC.
I have managed many strong teams and never
had one that played 60 games at the same level.
You have to accept that — we are human
beings.”
– Van Gaal ‘amazed’ –
Victory took Arsenal into second, above United
on goal difference and two points below leaders
Manchester City, who crushed bottom club
Newcastle United 6-1 on Saturday in a game that
saw Sergio Aguero score five goals.
That was all for the manager,” said Walcott.
That first half, we were unbelievable. No-one
could have dealt with us. It was the best
football I have ever been involved in. It was the
Arsenal of old.”
United would have gone top with victory, but
instead they were left to nurse their wounds
following the joint-heaviest league defeat of
Louis van Gaal’s tenure as manager.
I didn’t expect that,” Van Gaal admitted. “I was
surprised — not performing our game plan, not
the will to win. I didn’t see that.
We were top of the league (before the
weekend), so I was surprised. Amazed, maybe
that is a better word.
When you give a team like Arsenal so much
space to play football, then you know that you
shall lose.
And we have prepared ourselves also in that
way, to play more contact but don’t lose your
aggression. It was amazing for me and I am
very disappointed.”
In the day’s other game, Danish playmaker
Christian Eriksen scored with a pair of fine 25-
yard free-kicks as Tottenham Hotspur twice hit
back to secure a 2-2 draw at Swansea City.
Swansea were twice in front, courtesy of a 16th-
minute Andre Ayew header and a 31st-minute
own goal by Harry Kane, but Eriksen replied on
each occasion to extend Spurs’ unbeaten run to
seven league games.
Rodgers was the second Premier League
manager to part company with his club on
Sunday after experienced Dutch coach Dick
Advocaat stepped down at Sunderland following
a return of three points from eight games that
left the northeast club second from bottom.
This is a very special football club, with so many
great people, but I feel it is the right time to do
this — not for me, but for the club,” said
Advocaat, who rescued Sunderland from
relegation last season.
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