March double gives Brighton 3-0 win over lacklustre Liverpool

Brighton & Hove Albion winger Solly March netted twice early in the second half and set up another goal in a 3-0 home win over a sluggish Liverpool on Saturday that lifts them above the Reds and up to seventh in the Premier League standings.

After being denied a penalty late in the first half, March gave his side the lead in the 47th minute as Brighton won the ball high up the pitch and Kaoru Mitoma slid it into March’s path for a simple finish.

The 28-year-old added a brilliant second six minutes later, latching on to Evan Ferguson’s pass and digging the ball out from under his feet to fire it home inside the far post.

Making his first start since joining Liverpool from PSV Eindhoven in December, Dutch forward Cody Gakpo was anonymous for much of the game as the visitors struggled to keep possession and create any decent chances.

Marsh rounded off an excellent performance by teeing up substitute Danny Welbeck with a glancing header from a throw-in, and Welbeck lifted the ball over a defender before slotting it into the net for his first Premier League goal of the season.

The win means Brighton rise to seventh in the table on 30 points, two ahead of Liverpool, who have struggled with form and injuries.

Ward-Prowse brace gives Southampton victory at ailing Everton

James Ward-Prowse scored twice as bottom side Southampton came from behind to claim a vital 2-1 Premier League victory at fellow strugglers Everton and deepen the crisis at Goodison Park on Saturday.

Amadou Onana gave the home side a first half lead but Ward-Prowse equalised in the first minute of the second period and then curled in a trademark free-kick to give Southampton their first victory at Everton since 1997.

Southampton stay bottom of the standings with 15 points from their 19 games, the same number as Everton, who are above them only on goal difference.

The result comes on a day when members of the Everton board were advised to stay away from the ground over what the club termed a “real and credible threat to their safety and security”. Everton fans had planned a ‘sit-in’ at the ground after the game in protest at the club’s current plight.

The victory ends a run of six straight league defeats for Southampton and comes in a week in which they dumped Manchester City out of the League Cup, a marked improvement for new manager Nathan Jones after a difficult start at the club.

Ward-Prowse also saw his shot tipped onto the post by Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford in the first half, while home striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin had his deflected shot come off the crossbar with the score at 1-1.

Forest pull clear of relegation zone with win over Leicester

A double from Brennan Johnson earned Nottingham Forest a 2-0 win over Leicester City on Saturday, pulling Steve Cooper’s side five points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.

Leicester’s Harvey Barnes suffered an afternoon he would rather forget as he missed two golden chances in each half to give the visitors the lead.

Those misses proved costly as Johnson latched onto Morgan Gibbs-White’s through ball before firing Forest into the lead in the 56th minute.

Johnson made sure of what could be a crucial win in Forest’s survival bid late on with a fine finish, as the hosts made it back-to-back league wins to climb up the standings to 13th, above Leicester who have now lost four league games in a row.