Liverpool moved 10 points clear at the top of the Premier League after beating Watford 2-0 on Saturday, while second-placed Leicester City were held 1-1 at home by lowly Norwich City, ending the Foxes’ eight-match winning run.

Chelsea’s poor run of domestic form continued with a shock 1-0 home defeat to struggling Bournemouth, while recently promoted Sheffield United moved up to fifth with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa.

With third-placed Manchester City 17 points behind Liverpool ahead of their trip to Arsenal on Sunday, Juergen Klopp’s side are in a commanding position heading into a busy period of fixtures. The leaders had Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah to thank for their latest victory.

Liverpool took the lead with a characteristic counter-attack in the 38th minute — Sadio Mane collected the ball on the left and found Salah, who burst goalward before cutting in and curling a shot home with his right foot.

Liverpool had to wait until stoppage time to make sure of the victory thanks to a superb back-heeled flick.

“We played a tough team today — the way they played, they should not be where they are in the table,” Salah said. “We have experience in playing out games, I think sometimes crowd gets nervous.”

It was far from classic Liverpool, but Klopp was pleased with the way his team had ground out the win.

“That’s how it is. At 1-0, that’s the result you never can rely on. No problem with that,” said the German.