There were other pluses for Liverpool against Chelsea, too. Let’s hope Diogo Jota is not badly injured after he was forced to come off, but Darwin Nunez was excellent when he replaced him after half an hour.

Nunez did not get a scoring chance but he brought others into play and was involved in all the good things Liverpool did after he came off the bench.

Overall, Slot’s side were not at their best, but I would put that at least partly down to the effects of the international break.

Liverpool were a bit flat in the same circumstances in September, when they lost to Nottingham Forest – and they and Chelsea were both a bit flat on Sunday too.

This time, though, Liverpool got over the line and I thought they managed the game really well when they went 2-1 up, and had the discipline to see it out without too many scares.

The trick to winning the league is to win games when you don’t play well and although it is far too early to talk about Liverpool becoming champions, they are top of the table right now and have plenty to be pleased about.

Danny Murphy was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.

The final race of the weekend at Imola saw James Owen and Bence Valint split the Trofeo Pirelli AM and Trofeo Pirelli titles. The Meridian Modena – Engstler driver seized the moment in tricky conditions to win the AM world title ahead of his rivals and winning the overall race.

Owen made the most of the rain, which fell heavily in the last 10 minutes of the race. This was the key factor that affected the outcome in favour of the British driver, but also Valint, who saw his main rivals Giacomo Altoè and Luca Ludwig eliminated from the battle for remaining on the track with slicks for too long.

It was Altoè who got the best possible start from pole, with Ludwig slotting in behind aiming to hassle him throughout in an all-Italian duel. The first upset, however, came after 10 minutes with a spectacular high-speed incident at Tamburello.

Shortly before the braking point, Claus Zibrandtsen lost control of his 296, and after suddenly swerving to the left, the Danish driver’s car picked up speed on the wet grass and slid towards the chicane, hitting Luigi Coluccio’s 296 head-on. The impact was violent, but fortunately both stepped out of their respective cars unscathed.

This incident, however, forced the Race Direction to display the red flag, stopping the race for several minutes to allow the track marshals to remove the damaged cars.

At the restart, Altoè and Ludwig picked up where they left off, at the top and battling for first place. The situation seemed to have stabilized, with the two Italians fighting for the Trofeo Pirelli title.
With eight minutes to go, the rain started to fall and Altoè had to give up first place to Owen. Both the Italians were on slicks, while Owen, who had switched to rain tyres earlier, immediately felt at ease on the wet track and powered his way ahead.

Owen was able to manage an advantage of more than half a minute over second-placed Roberto Perrina, first among the Trofeo Pirelli drivers. The Ferrari of Seattle team man, however, made a mistake, slipping to fourth overall and second in his category behind Valint.

A few moments later, Jay Logan went off the track, ending up beached in the gravel. This forced the Race Direction to send the Safety Car out again, thus wiping out the advantage of more than half a minute that Owen had accumulated in the previous laps.

At that point, with four minutes plus one lap to go, the race ended under the Safety Car, with Owen ahead of Giammarco Marzialetti and crowned Trofeo Pirelli AM champion. Bence Valint, on the other hand, finished third, but as he was the first Trofeo Pirelli driver to the flag, he won the category title.

The result was a bit of a travesty for Altoè and Ludwig, who were clearly the fastest drivers on the track but who were forced to settle for sixth overall (third in class) and eleventh overall and seventh in class respectively. Both were penalized for their decision to remain on slick tires when another heavy downpour arrived to flood the Santerno circuit nine minutes from the end of the race.

Finali Mondiali Ferrari – Trofeo Pirelli e Trofeo Pirelli AM – Final classification

A FERRARI double rained on the parade of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris’ charge to the title.

It truly was the Wild West on track from start to finish as Norris and Verstappen produced an almighty scrap as they battled nose to tail for third-place from 12-laps to go.

7

7

Advertisement

7

The top two positions had already been snatched from their clutches as birthday boy Charles Leclerc capitalised on a poor start from pole-sitter Norris to cross the line in first.

Carlos Sainz took second-place eight seconds behind his teammate but no one will care.

All eyes had been on Norris and Verstappen’s all out war with the Dutchman producing a defensive masterclass until five-laps-to-go.

Norris overtook the Red Bull on lap 51 but went off the track and was slapped with a five-second penalty meaning he had to settle for fourth behind third-place Verstappen.

The Texas rodeo continued as seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton was forced to RETIRE just three laps in after spinning off at Turn 19 and beaching himself on the gravel.

Norris knew it was pretty much do or die in Texas, given Verstappen soared to victory in Saturday’s sprint-race and stretching his lead to 54 points in the driver’s championship.

Verstappen’s world championship lead is now up to 57 points, having  built it by five points across the weekend, while Norris’ hopes of chasing down the Dutchman have been massively dented with five rounds remaining.

The McLaren driver, whose starts have been his Achilles’ heel, got off well but left too much space for Verstappen to bulldoze inside.

7

7

FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS

It is the fifth race this season that he has started on pole but not been in the lead after the opening lap, having done the same at the Spanish, Hungarian, Dutch and Italian Grands Prix.

The Red Bull ran Norris wide on the way out of the first corner, and Leclerc swept through to take the lead from fourth.

The other Ferrari, of Sainz, also nipped past Norris, leaving the McLaren in fourth.

McLaren reported the incident as they felt Verstappen pushed him wide, but really Norris was not aggressive enough and only had himself to blame.

Norris said on his team radio: “He clearly pushed me off. He had no intent to make the corner.

“Even he went off the track. I had to avoid crashing into him or him into me.”

There was a safety car on lap 3 as disaster struck forHamilton who was forced to retire as he spun off and beached himself on the gravel on Turn 19.

It was the exact same spot his teammate Russell spun out in qualifying and there wasn’t much the seven-time world champion could do about it.

It prompted the first Safety Car since the Canadian Grand Prix in June and at the restart Leclerc struggled to create a gap to Verstappen but managed to make it through the first corner in the lead.

On lap 17 Toto Wolff came on the radio to slam the “total joke” five-second penalty for an overtake on for allegedly forcing Valtteri Bottas off the track in an overtake earlier on.

Half way through and Leclerc was a whopping ten seconds ahead of Verstappen, but the Ferrari driver did not want to be left out as bait for too long before pitting.

He said on his team radio: “Don’t leave me out for too long. I do not want to be under pressure.”

By lap 36, Norris and Verstappen were tussling for third place as the McLaren was closing in on his rival.

7

Verstappen was fuming and said on his team radio: “These tyres just aren’t good. I can’t brake, I can’t attack anything.”

Second-placed Sainz was relentless and by lap 43 hit back with another fastest lap, cranking up the pressure on his teammate out front.

Norris continued to snap at Verstappen’s heels and closed the gap to just 0.6 seconds with 12 laps to go.

The Dutchman knew he had a race on his hands and kept the McLaren at bay with text-book defense until lap 52.

Norris got the move down at Turn 12 but it appeared to be off the track and Verstappen fumed on his team radio: “He overtook me outside of the track.”

Hamilton said after the race: “I have never spun especially on the second lap, it’s devastating to not be in the race because I love this race.

“It’s obviously a similar situation to George yesterday, the car is very sensitive, it started bouncing, I wasn’t even pushing. I lost a load of the rear and it came round.”

On hoping for another win in the Mercedes with five races to go, he added: “Of course, that’s what we’re working towards.

“That is painful, it’s never happened to me before but this weekend the confidence had gone already from the first spin we had.

“We need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what has been wrong with the car this weekend because it’s not been normal. We will work on it and try and come back stronger.”

7

LAS VEGAS – At 40, Darren Elkins is still racking up wins in the premiere MMA promotion on the planet. Elkins has not only impressed fans with his longevity, but he’s also impressed himself.

“When I was the young me, the young, beginning UFC Darren, I’d always make fun of the old guys,” Elkins said at a post-fight news conference. “‘Oh this old guy still messing with them,’ and calling them old guys. I never thought I’d be 40 and still doing this, but man, am I glad I am.”

Elkins (29-11 MMA, 19-10 UFC) completed his 29th UFC performance this past Saturday at UFC Fight Night 245. He defeated veteran Daniel Pineda (28-17 MMA, 5-8 UFC) in a hard-fought unanimous decision win that won him a Fight of the Night bonus.

This was also his first fight in 2024. With almost two decades of professional fighting, the once very active UFC featherweight is content with this current pace at this stage in his career.

“I don’t like to go any more than two (fights),” Elkins said. “I had one last year and one this year. Last year I got hurt, this year I got hurt, I mean, which is fine. Both times I came back when ,my body was recovered, so one of two fights (a year). I shoot for two, but if I don’t get two, one is OK, too in my life. Now, I don’t have to be the guy that’s fighting every weekend anymore.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 245.

The race was bookended by two incidents between the title rivals, right at the start and in the closing stages.

At the first corner, Norris, who started from pole, appeared to have covered the inside line, but Verstappen went for it anyway and the two drivers both ran off the track on the exit.

Norris complained that Verstappen had forced him off and should give the place back, but the stewards did not investigate the incident.

Their battle allowed Leclerc to slip by into the lead and once there he was in total control of the race.

He quickly extended his advantage and it soon became clear that the Ferrari driver would dominate unless something went wrong.

Leclerc was 10 seconds in the lead by the time Verstappen in second place made his first pit stop on lap 25. Ferrari pulled him in a lap later and he controlled the race to the end.

Sainz ran third in the first stint, after briefly challenging Verstappen on the first lap, and Ferrari chose to use the ‘undercut’ on Red Bull.

Sainz pitted on lap 21 so by the time Verstappen stopped, the new tyres on the Ferrari had gained the Spaniard enough time that the Red Bull came out behind.

Verstappen was unable to do anything about Sainz, and had to turn his sights to Norris.

He and team-mate Oscar Piastri had a quiet first stint, running in fourth and fifth places, lacking the pace of the Ferraris and Red Bull in front of them.

But McLaren ran their drivers long to give them a tyre advantage in the second stint.

Norris stopped six laps after Verstappen and was 6.6 seconds behind when he returned to the track.

He was on the Red Bull’s tail just over 10 laps later and the two set about an engrossing battle over the next 10 laps.

Norris tracked Verstappen closely and a number of times the two ran side by side through some of the corners of the complex after Turn 12, the tight corner at the end of the long back straight.

But Verstappen positioned his car with expertise to prevent Norris ever being able to make a move at the hairpin at Turn 15.

On lap 52, Norris was closer than ever coming on to the back straight and he went for the outside as Verstappen defended the inside line.

Both cars ran off the track, Norris considerably, and the McLaren emerged ahead.

Verstappen immediately complained that Norris had overtaken by going off the track and should give the place back.

But Norris decided to press on, arguing to his team that he had been ahead at the apex.

But the stewards disagreed, and Norris was given a five-second penalty just before the end of the race. Although he had pulled away, he had not quite done enough to negate the penalty.

Sounding down, Norris told BBC Sport after the race: “That’s life. I didn’t do a good enough job.”

Asked whether he should have given the place back, he said: “Maybe that was my one and only chance.”

Piastri took fifth, while George Russell saved Mercedes’ blushes after a difficult weekend by recovering to sixth place after starting from the pit lane because of a crash in qualifying.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashed on the second lap. “I have never spun especially on the second lap,” he said. “It’s devastating to not be in the race because I love this race.”