Liverpool have ended Newcastle United's long unbeaten run in the English Premier League, with early goals by Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo giving them a 2-0 victory at St James' Park.
Jurgen Klopp's side caught Newcastle cold with a scintillating start and the stunned hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 22nd minute, when goalkeeper Nick Pope was red-carded.
Fourth-placed Newcastle's only previous defeat in the league came against Liverpool at the end of August, but they were up against it, after Nunez controlled a long pass by Trent Alexander Arnold to smash home in the 10th minute.
Gakpo doubled Liverpool's lead seven minutes later, when he slotted in from a clever pass by Mohamed Salah.
Pope was caught out of his goal by a long clearance from opposite number Alisson and ended up grabbing the ball with his hand well outside his penalty area.
Newcastle responded well, and were denied by a mixture of the woodwork and Alisson, but the damage was already done.
Liverpool's second successive league win, after a run of four without one, moved them up to eighth in the table with 35 points and they are now six points behind Newcastle, with a game in hand.
Newcastle's top-four ambitions are under threat, after only one win in seven league games.
Earlier, a trademark James Ward-Prowse free-kick earned basement club Southampton a precious three points at Chelsea in a scrappy 1-0 win that piled more pressure on manager Graham Potter.
Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta brought down Stuart Armstrong just outside the area in the 45th minute and Ward-Prowse curled a free-kick over the wall into the right-hand side of the net, with goalkeeper Kepa left sprawling.
Azpilicueta needed nearly 10 minutes of treatment on the pitch in the second half, after he received a kick to the head in a goalmouth clash. Physios from both clubs rushed to his aid and the Spaniard was eventually carried off on a stretcher.
Chelsea, who have scored only four goals in 10 games in all competitions since the start of the year, looked livelier in the second half, when Raheem Sterling and Kai Havertz came on, and they kept the Southampton defence under pressure.
But despite spending nearly 300 million pounds (NZ$578 million) in the January transfer window, the Blues still could not score against the south-coast team, led by caretaker coach Ruben Selles, after Nathan Jones was sacked a week ago.
Chelsea languish in 10th place on 31 points from 23 games, 10 points adrift of the top four. Southampton have 18 points and are three points outside the safety zone.
Reuters
