Staff Reporter.
Liverpool went top of the Premier League as substitute Divock Origi scored a last-minute winner to sink Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux.
With seconds remaining, Origi latched on to a Mohamed Salah pass, smashing the ball beyond Jose Sa in the Wolves goal.
The win meant Liverpool leapfrogged leaders Chelsea,who lost 3-2 to West Ham in Saturday’s early kick-off, although they will drop down to second if Manchester City beat Watford in Saturday’s 17:30 GMT match.
Defeat was cruel on Wolves, who had defended heroically for 94 minutes and were 60 seconds away from becoming the first team to stop Liverpool scoring this season.
Liverpool came into this match in blistering form, having scored at least twice in each of their past 18 matches and scoring 14 times in their past four.
But for most of the afternoon, it looked as if they would be denied in front of goal for the first time since drawing 0-0 with Real Madrid last April.
In the first half, former Wolves forward Diogo Jota headed a deep cross narrowly off target while Romain Saiss produced a superb sliding tackle to deny the Reds’ Salah a tap-in.
And in the second period, Liverpool continued to dominate as Thiago was denied by a combination of Raul Jimenez and Sa before former Jota missed a huge opportunity, seeing an effort blocked on the line by Conor Coady with the keeper stranded.
It looked as if that would be the game’s best chance but the Reds kept up the pressure and were awarded for their attacking intent with just one minute of stoppage time remaining when Origi broke the deadlock with his fourth goal of the season.
Meanwhile Callum Wilson scored the only goal as Eddie Howe’s Newcastle claimed their first Premier League win of the season at the expense of fellow strugglers Burnley.
Wilson steered the ball into the roof of the net from the edge of the area after Burnley goalkeeper Nick Pope fumbled Joe Willock’s cross under pressure from Fabian Schar.
Burnley created the better openings before Wilson struck, Maxwel Cornet twice going close and Johann Berg Gudmundsson striking the outside of the post via a deflection off Javier Manquillo.
Matej Vydra also missed a glaring opportunity to equalise on the stroke of half-time, shooting tamely over the crossbar from Matt Lowton’s right-wing delivery.
Miguel Almiron was played through by Wilson in the second half but was denied a first goal in 26 league games by Pope.
Jay Rodriguez thought he had equalised with 11 minutes remaining when was ruled to be in an offside position from Ashley Westwood’s pass.
Howe’s side, who also earned their first clean sheet of the season at St James’ Park, moved up to 19th in the table, level on 10 points with bottom club Norwich and 18th-placed Burnley.
Elsewhere Neal Maupay rescued another dramatic draw for Brighton with a 98th-minute equaliser against Southampton despite being a man down through injury.