Suarez grabs limelight as United stumbles
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Love him or loathe him, you simply cannot ignore Luis Suarez and there was no doubt which camp the former Liverpool favorite Robbie Fowler occupied after the Uruguayan produced a jaw-dropping four-goal show against Norwich City.
Fowler was christened ‘God’ by the Anfield faithful after plundering 183 goals in 369 appearances in two spells with the club and he joked that Suarez’s exploits were making him and other Liverpool greats green with envy.
“Luis is a phenomenal player,” said the former England international after fourth-placed Liverpool crushed Norwich 5-1 in the English Premier League on Wednesday.
“I love him but I’m also starting to dislike him because he’s making all the ex-Liverpool strikers look very average,” joked BBC TV pundit Fowler after watching Suarez score four high-quality goals.
Suarez is a controversial figure with a series of misdemeanors behind him, most recently the infamous bite he inflicted on Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic’s arm in April which earned a 10-match suspension.
However, there is no denying his spell-binding talents as a striker and pundits were queuing up yesterday to lord one of the best scoring performances in the history of the Premier League.
Uruguay international Suarez certainly enjoys facing Norwich and now has a remarkable tally of 11 goals in four games against the East Anglian club.
The Uruguayan opened up with an outrageous 45-meter volley that sailed past goalkeeper John Ruddy before making it 2-0 by performing fleet-footed contortions to hook in a corner from close range.
The best goal of the night came when he took four Norwich defenders out of the game with a dynamic run and dribble and unleashed an unstoppable half-volley that again left Ruddy flailing at thin air. Suarez put the icing on the cake in the second half with a trademark curling free kick from 25 meters that nestled in Ruddy’s top corner, making him the league’s top scorer this season on 13 goals.
Bradley Johnson pulled one back for Norwich before Raheem Stirling added a fifth goal — from a Suarez assist — to leave Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers purring with delight.
“I really enjoyed watching the team, I thought they were outstanding,” said Rodgers. “But when you have a performer like Luis playing at that level it’s brilliant.
“The first two goals were good but the third one was out of this world. He puts fear into defenders and the quality of that goal was just absolutely phenomenal.”
While Suarez’s quadruple capped a goal-laden night in the Premier League that saw the top four all win, Manchester United fell 0-1 to Everton at home to be cut adrift in the title race.
Arsenal preserved its four-point lead as Nicklas Bendtner capitalized on a rare start to score in a 2-0 win over Hull City, while Eden Hazard capped a brilliant performance with two goals in Chelsea’s wild 4-3 victory at Sunderland.
Manchester City stayed third by beating West Bromwich Albion 3-2, mainly thanks to Yaya Toure’s brace.
While the front-runners were all winning, United slumped to a fourth defeat of a turbulent first season in charge for David Moyes, whose old club of 11 years claimed a first win at Old Trafford since 1992 thanks to Bryan Oviedo’s 86th-minute goal.
“It’s a big catch-up for us now,” said Moyes, whose team dropped to ninth place in the stuttering defense of its title — 12 points behind Arsenal after 14 games.
Tottenham Hotspur ruined Rene Meulensteen’s first match in charge of Fulham by winning 2-1 at Craven Cottage, giving Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas a first win in five games.
Swansea City ended Newcastle United’s four-match win run with a 3-0 victory and Aston Villa upset Southampton 3-2 to take the number of goals in the night’s nine matches to 32. Stoke was held 0-0 by Cardiff.
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