Liverpool's season not one for history books, admits Klopp

Liverpool's performance this season will not be one for the history books, manager Juergen Klopp admitted after Saturday's goalless draw at Crystal Palace dented their hopes of finishing in the Premier League's top four.

Liverpool were looking to bounce back after being thrashed 5-2 at home by Real Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday but the Merseyside club were left frustrated at Selhurst Park as they struggled to find any rhythm.

Liverpool sit seventh in the league standings on 36 points, six points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur with a game in hand.

"I see in your [the media's] eyes and the players' eyes as well [that] it looks like we lost the game - we didn't," Klopp said on Saturday.

"We spite ourselves with a lot of things, but you cannot suffer because of our own history. That would now be really a joke.

"This will not be the season that everybody [looks for] in the history books - it will not be big movies about it or stuff like this. But we have to go through it anyway and we will."

Liverpool host Wolverhampton Wanderers in the league next on Wednesday before facing rivals Manchester United four days later. 

Also on Saturday Arsenal and Manchester City continued to slug it out in the title race with wins over Leicester City and Bournemouth respectively while at the bottom Leeds United moved out of the relegation zone.

Gabriel Martinelli earned Arsenal a 1-0 win at Leicester City to briefly send them five points clear, but City responded with a 4-1 rout of struggling Bournemouth as Erling Haaland netted a club record 27th Premier League goal in a season.

New Leeds manager Javi Gracia's reign began with a vital 1-0 win over bottom club Southampton as Junior Firpo's goal snapped a 10-game winless run to move them into 17th place.

Arsenal have responded impressively to their defeat at home by champions City with back-to-back wins at Villa and Leicester.

They had a goal by Leandro Trossard ruled out by VAR in the first half but it was the Belgian who played the pass which allowed Brazilian Martinelli to score in the 46th minute.

"I had full faith the players could do it," manager Mikel Arteta said of his team's response.

"I think defensively today we were incredible because we restricted Leicester to one shot on target in the whole game at home and that's a difficult thing to do."

Arsenal, bidding for a first title since 2004, have 57 points from 24 games while City have 55 from 25.

Since beating Arsenal, City lost momentum with draws at lowly Nottingham Forest and away to RB Leipzig in the Champions League in midweek. But they were back to their ruthless best in the first half at Bournemouth, scoring three times.

Julian Alvarez fired in a rebound when Haaland's deflected shot cannoned off the bar after 15 minutes.

The Norwegian then netted his 27th league goal of the campaign just before the half-hour with a fairly simple finish to overtake Sergio Aguero's tally from the 2014-15 campaign and become City's record scorer in a Premier League season.

Phil Foden effectively sealed the three points on the cusp of halftime, pouncing on an errant pass to make it 3-0 with a rasping finish. Chris Mepham's own goal after the break made it 4-0 with Jefferson Lerma hammering home a volley to earn a late consolation for the hosts who ended the day in the bottom three.