LONDON: The Premier League table is starting to have a 1979 kind of feel to it — with Liverpool at the top of the standings and Nottingham Forest in second place as the closest challenger.

Liverpool padded their lead with a 5-0 rout of West Ham on Sunday, while upstart Nottingham Forest climbed into second place by beating Everton 2-0 to continue their surprising push for a Champions League place.

Forest were runners-up behind Liverpool in the English top tier in 1979 — the same year they won the first of two straight European Cups under Brian Clough — but hasn’t finished that high in the domestic first division since then.

The club’s long-suffering fans finally have reason to believe that the good times are back under Nuno Espirito Santo. Although the Portuguese manager was the first to point out that his team may not stay in second place for very long.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Nuno said of his team’s position. “We haven’t achieved anything yet.”

Forest could find itself back in fourth place by Jan. 1 as they are only one point above Arsenal and two ahead of Chelsea, with both London clubs having a game in hand.

Liverpool could prove a lot harder to overtake, though, as Arne Slot’s team only seems to be growing stronger and stronger.

The performance at West Ham was one of their most impressive yet, with five different players getting on the scoresheet — including Mohamed Salah, who netted the team’s third for his league-leading 17th of the season.

Salah also had an assist to take his tally to 52 goal contributions in all competitions for the calendar year 2024 — 29 goals and 23 assists.

Salah was asked after the match if he would soon have good news for fans about his future beyond the end of this season, when his contract expires. The Egyptian told Sky Sports: “No, we are far away from that.”

“The only thing on my mind is I want Liverpool to win the league and I want to be part of that,” Salah said. “I will do my best for the team to win the trophy. There is a few other teams catching up with us and we need to stay focused and humble and go again.”

Liverpool are nine points ahead of Arsenal and 10 above Chelsea, with all three teams having played 18 games.

Manchester City is 14 points back having played 19 games, after beating Leicester 2-0 away.

Guardiola marks milestone with win

In his 500th game in charge of Man City, Pep Guardiola had some reasons to smile again.

City marked Guardiola’s milestone with a win and a goal from Erling Haaland — things that the Spaniard used to take for granted but have been increasingly rare of late for the struggling four-time defending Premier League champions.

Savinho also netted his first goal for the club in a much-needed win, although the team still looked far from the juggernaut that has dominated English soccer for much of the Spaniard’s reign.

Leicester had several chances for an equalizer before Savinho set up Haaland for the second in the 74th as City ended a five-game winless run in all competitions.

“Just relief, that is the word to express how all of us feel,” Guardiola said. “It was not the ideal performance but hopefully the victories will give our mood a better position. ... Hopefully in the new year we can bounce back a bit from a bad moment.”

This was only the club’s second win in 14 games in all competition. And even against a team mired in the relegation zone, City was pegged back for much of the second half until Haaland’s header ended Leicester’s resistance.

Savinho put the team ahead in the 21st minute by pouncing on the rebound after Phil Foden drove forward and tried a low shot from distance that Leicester goalkeeper Jakub Stolarczyk pushed to the side. The ball fell into the path of the onrushing Savinho, who lifted it over the goalkeeper and into the net.

The winger then turned provider by lifting a perfect cross into the box for Haaland to head home the second, shortly after Jamie Vardy had missed a good chance for a Leicester equalizer.

Spurs drop points again

Tottenham’s roller-coaster of a season had another downturn as Spurs conceded a late equalizer to draw 2-2 at home against Wolves.

Ange Postecoglou has come under increasing criticism of late because of his team’s all-attacking style of play and the team’s defensive vulnerabilities were on display again as Jorgen Strand Larsen was afforded space to beat Fraser Forster at his near post in the 87th minute.

Wolves had taken the lead through Hwang Hee-chan after a well-worked free kick routine in the seventh minute, but Rodrigo Bentancur equalized five minutes later and Brennan Johnson gave Tottenham the lead on the stroke of halftime.

Substitute Dango Ouattara netted an even later equalizer for Bournemouth to draw 2-2 at Fulham, while Crystal Palace came from a goal down to beat last-place Southampton 2-1.

ROME: Napoli went through three different coaches during their Serie A title defense last season and ended the campaign in 10th place.

Antonio Conte was hired in July and now Napoli are ending 2024 level with Atalanta atop the Italian league again.

Substitute Giacomo Raspadori scored a late goal and Napoli beat relegation-threatened Venezia 1-0 on Sunday in their final match of the year.

Napoli trail Atalanta only on goal difference but both teams are one point ahead of defending champions Inter Milan, who have a game in hand.

“Even if I play cards with my daughter I want to win,” said Conte, who was hired to get Napoli back into the Champions League. “Personally, I don’t accept minimal goals. But we all know where we started and what the club’s objectives are.”

Atalanta drew 1-1 at Lazio on Saturday and Inter won 3-0 at Cagliari.

Also Sunday, Juventus and Fiorentina drew 2-2 in a match that was briefly suspended because of discriminatory chants aimed at Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic; and AC Milan drew 1-1 with visiting Roma.

After Luciano Spalletti coached Napoli to the Serie A title in 2022-23, Rudi Garcia, Walter Mazzarri and Francesco Calzona managed the team last season, when the Partenopei finished a whopping 41 points behind Inter.

“What happened is in the past. The present is what counts,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “It’s great to be back on top but there’s still a long way to go.”

Napoli had struggled to get the ball past Venezia goalkeeper Filip Stankovic, the son of former Lazio and Inter standout Dejan Stankovic. But Raspadori broke the deadlock in the 79th when he used one touch to fire in a loose ball from the center of the area less than 10 minutes after he came on.

“These are tough matches where it means a lot to come away with three points,” Raspadori said. “We know we’re on the right path.”

In the first half, Stankovic saved a penalty kick from Romelu Lukaku. Then in the second half Stankovic deflected a shot from Lukaku off the post.

Napoli produced 25 shots to Venezia’s four.

Napoli’s 27 goals scored are the least among the top six teams in the standings.

“The squad is improving under every point of view. We just need to score more goals,” Conte said.

Discriminatory chants aimed at Vlahovic prompt brief suspension

Discriminatory chants aimed at Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic by visiting Fiorentina fans prompted a two-minute suspension during the first half.

Vlahovic, a Serbia international who played for Fiorentina before transferring to Juventus three years ago, appeared to tell the referee about the chants. The ref then stopped play, gathered the teams and ordered a warning announcement to be made over the stadium’s public address system.

The announcement said that the match would be suspended definitively if there were more discriminatory chants.

Play then resumed.

Khephren Thuram put Juventus ahead midway through the first half. Former Juventus striker Moise Kean equalized before the break with his 15th goal across all competitions this season. Thuram added another in the second half and Fiorentina equalized again with a volley from Riccardo Sottil in the 87th.

Juventus and Fiorentina are both nine points behind the leaders.

Juventus is the only unbeaten team in the league but the Bianconeri have drawn more matches (11) than they’ve won (seven).

At the San Siro, Tijjani Reijnders put Milan ahead early on and Paulo Dybala equalized for Roma. Under-pressure Milan coach Paulo Fonseca was sent off for protests at the end of the first half.

Earlier, Torino came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Udinese.