EPL: Jose Mourinho must stop Mohamed Salah to keep Liverpool at bay

Jose MourinhoManchester United boss Jose Mourinho has the tough task of keeping Liverpools Mohamed Salah quiet as Jurgen Klopps entertainers roll into town at the weekend with second place in the Premier League the prize on offer With Pep Guardiolas Manchester City virtually assured of the title northwest rivals United and Liverpool the two most successful clubs in the English game are left fighting for the scraps Uniteds impressive fightback from 20 down on Monday to beat Crystal Palace 32 maintained their slender twopoint lead over Liverpool in the battle for the runnersup spot behind runaway leaders City Nemanja Matic bailed out Mourinhos men with a stunning stoppagetime strike in London but another three points papered over the cracks in the latest in a series of unconvincing performances from UnitedWe have to be honest we have to play better Matic admitted once the euphoria of his first United goal died down We have to do more if we want to win as Liverpool is a team with great quality The onus will be on Mourinho to take the game to the visitors at Old Trafford on Saturday but the Portuguese manager criticised for keeping his array of attackers firmly on the leash is unlikely to risk throwing caution to the wind Liverpool had scored 20 goals in their previous seven games before a muchchanged side drew 00 with Porto in midweek a result that sealed a place in the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in nine years With January signing Virgil van Dijk settling in well at the back and Loris Karius impressing in goal the pieces are falling into place for Klopps team who have lost just once in 20 Premier League games But it is their forwards led by the irrepressible Salah alongside Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane who have scored a combined 68 goals this season that will give Mourinho sleepless nights There was a palpable sensation around Anfield on Tuesday that Liverpool minds were already focused on United with the freescoring front three all rested at different spells of the gameUnited v Liverpool specialThe match against Liverpool is the first of three games in eight days for United at Old Trafford that will define their season Sevilla visit in the last16 of the Champions League on Tuesday with the tie delicately balanced at 00 after the first leg before inform Brighton head north for an FA Cup quarterfinal Mourinho conceded recently to play Liverpool has a special meaning for United so reserving his stars energies for midweek is out of the question However he does have a big decision to make over whether to persist with Alexis Sanchez on the left side of Uniteds attack with the likes of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford in his armouryThe Chilean has scored just once since moving from Arsenal in January Elsewhere Chelsea need to bounce back from four defeats in five league games if they are to retain any realistic hope of a topfour finish when they host struggling Palace and Tottenham must pick themselves up after being dumped out of the Champions League by Juventus at Bournemouth A heavily rotated City side were also beaten for just the fourth time this season by Basel in Europe in midweek but still progressed to the quarterfinals and can move to within three wins of mathematically sealing the title when they visit Stoke on Monday Arsenal trailing fourthplaced Spurs by 13 points look to have blown their hopes of qualifying for next seasons Champions League but Arsene Wenger will be desperate to reverse an alarming slump when Watford visit the EmiratesCatch up on all the latest sports news and updates here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever