Jurgen Klopp’s side made it six successive league victories thanks to Shaqiri’s late double after United’s Jesse Lingard had cancelled out Sadio Mane’s opener at Anfield.

Shaqiri’s superb substitute cameo allowed Liverpool to reopen a one-point lead over second-placed Manchester City after the champions had knocked the Reds off the summit with their win against Everton on Saturday.

Liverpool’s first win in their last six meetings with United ended a frustrating streak against the Old Trafford outfit that dated back to March 2016, while also extending their unbeaten start to the league season to 17 matches.

While that was cause for pre-Christmas revelry on the Kop, more significantly, Liverpool’s refusal to be subdued by a United team set up by Jose Mourinho with five defenders was another statement of intent as they chase a first English league title since 1990.

“The way the boys played and fought was outstanding. We saw the line up of United, how organised they were and they fight from the back. I’m over the moon about the performance,” Klopp said.

“The timing of Shaqiri’s introduction was not too bad. We need somebody to score the goals.”

Of Liverpool’s title bid, Klopp added: “We know we are a good team. We had to prove it and keep on proving it.”

– Mane strikes –

Senegal winger Mane put Liverpool ahead in the 24th minute when he broke away from Ashley Young to meet Fabinho’s sublime pass with a nimble piece of chest control before shooting past David De Gea.

United equalised against the run of play in the 33rd minute as Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker made a hash of catching Romelu Lukaku’s low cross and Lingard finished off the rebound.

Alisson’s error didn’t prove costly as Switzerland midfielder Shaqiri struck within three minutes of coming off the bench, his shot flicking off the hapless Young into the roof of the net in the 73rd minute.

Shaqiri ensured Liverpool would return to the top in the 80th minute with a stinging strike that clipped the foot of United defender Eric Bailly on its way past De Gea.

United are now 19 points behind Liverpool in sixth place as the pressure mounts on Mourinho following another wretched display.

“We couldn’t cope with their fantastic intensity and pressing. They are the strong team, but it’s hard to concede two goals in the way we conceded,” Mourinho said.

“If you speak about fortunate you speak about their second and third goals.”

– Leno howler –

Meanwhile, Unai Emery admitted Arsenal need to fix their leaky defence after Southampton’s Charlie Austin punished a howler from Bernd Leno to stun the Gunners in a 3-2 victory.

Austin settled a thrilling clash at St Mary’s when he headed home with just five minutes left after Arsenal goalkeeper Leno misjudged Shane Long’s cross.

Southampton had twice taken the lead through Danny Ings, only for Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s brace to draw Arsenal level on each occasion.

Leno’s mistake handed Arsenal their first defeat in 15 league games and brought a stunning halt to their longest unbeaten run in all competitions since 2007.

Emery’s fifth-placed team had not lost since a 3-2 defeat at Chelsea in August and the north Londoners’ first setback since the close-season leaves them three points behind the fourth-placed Blues, who won 2-1 at Brighton on Sunday.

Conceding Arsenal need to tighten up at the back, Emery said: “We haven’t conceded a lot of chances but today they scored three goals. That is a lot so we need to improve with this.

“We need to do some analysis on how we can improve and do better.”

Chelsea put a week of negative headlines for the behaviour of their fans behind them on the field thanks to an inspired Eden Hazard at Brighton.

The Belgian provided his ninth assist of the season for Pedro to open the scoring and then chalked up his ninth goal of the campaign, but first in 13 games for club and country.

Solly March pulled one back with his first goal of the campaign, but Chelsea held on.

“He’s very able to come out and play with his team-mates, very able to create spaces. Now, in that position, he has to improve in attacking the box,” Sarri said of Hazard’s display as the spearhead of Chelsea’s attack.

Mourinho claimed ahead of the game that Liverpool have had luck on their side this season, but while there was fortune in substitute Xherdan Shaqiri’s two deflected strikes in the final 17 minutes, the visitors did not deserve anything more than a fifth league defeat of the season.

“The players gave everything and when they give everything I’m never upset with them. I have a good feeling towards them, they play in relation to their qualities, the same way the opponent played in relation to their qualities,” said Mourinho.

“They (Liverpool) are fast, intense, aggressive, physical, they play 200 miles per hour with the ball and without the ball.”

Mourinho also turned on his players’ injury record after having to name a patched up defence with Eric Bailly replacing Chris Smalling at the last minute after the latter picked up an injury in the warm-up.

“We have lots of problems related to physicality,” added Mourinho. “We have lots of players that I could consider injury problems, because some of our players are always injured.”

However, there will be little sympathy for the Portuguese’s protests as he left £89 million signing Paul Pogba on the bench for the full 90 minutes, while £50 summer recruit Fred didn’t even make the squad.

Victory took Liverpool back a point above Manchester City and a mammoth 19 clear of United, who remain in sixth and are now 11 points off the top four.

However, Mourinho insisted United can still qualify for next season’s Champions League.

“I know that we lost some other matches but we played Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City away, probably the three best teams apart from Tottenham,” he added. “I think we have more possibilities to do more points in the second half of the season than the first.”

– Liverpool lay seige –

The contrasting form showed by both sides this season continued as United strained to keep a rampant Liverpool at bay and were only level for so long thanks to a huge error by home goalkeeper Alisson Becker.

“You (the media) didn’t say too many nice things about them and good things about us. It was made for another result. We wanted to avoid that and we fought really hard,” said Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool laid siege to the visitors’ goal early on with David de Gea stretching to keep out a low drive from Roberto Firmino, Ashley Young clearing off the line and Fabinho firing wide from the edge of the box.

“A brilliant start. One of the best performances we’ve had since I’ve been at Liverpool,” added Klopp. “The first half an hour was outstanding.”

Only City have kept Klopp’s side from scoring in the Premier League this season and a United defence that has kept just one clean sheet in the league since September never looked capable of holding out like they had in their two previous visits to Anfield.

Mourinho’s men were finally breached when Mane controlled Fabinho’s chipped ball into the box on his chest and volleyed past the onrushing De Gea on 24 minutes.

However, Liverpool’s momentum was punctured by an Alisson gift 12 minutes before the break.

The Brazilian was Liverpool’s hero with an injury-time save to secure the Reds’ place in the last 16 of the Champions League against Napoli on Tuesday.

But he spilled Romelu Lukaku’s simple cross into the path of the grateful Lingard to bundle the ball into an unguarded net.

The second half followed a similar pattern but it wasn’t until Klopp turned to Shaqiri 20 minutes from time that Liverpool found a way through.

Three minutes later De Gea did well to prevent Ander Herrera turning Mane’s cross into his own net, but the ball fell for Shaqiri and his effort cannoned off Young and in off the underside of the bar.

Shaqiri got lucky again with 10 minutes to go when, this time on his favoured left foot, his shot flicked off the diving Bailly to leave De Gea helpless.

The 22-year-old’s latest silverware comes after a year in which she swept every major golfing award – Player of the Year, No 1 player, Race to CME Globe (accumulated points), the Annika Major Award, LPGA Vare Trophy, Top 10 Leaders and No 1 on the Money List.

She was the heavy favourite to clinch Thailand’s top sporting honour over Chanathip, who was the nation’s most successful football player in 2018 after helping Japan’s Consadole Sapporo to a record-high fourth place in the J League.

Thai-Australian Jai Angsuthasawit won the Best Male Amateur award after he became the first Thai to win a cycling keirin gold medal at the Asian Games with a sparkling performance in Jakarta.

The Cycling Association of Thailand, with one gold, two silvers and three bronzes from the Asiad, was named the best sport association of the year.

On the women’s side, taekwondo exponent Panipak Wongpattanakit won the Best Female Amateur Athlete after winning gold medals at the Asian Games and at four World Cup |events.

Women’s Volleyball Team coach Danai Sriwatcharamethakul won Best Thai Coach while Cuban Juan Bautista Fontanills won Best Foreign Coach. The National Women’s volleyball outfit won Best Sports Team while the Best Team event went to the national women’s badminton squad.

A total of 34 awards were presented at the Hua Mark Indoor Stadium yesterday. There were also special Honorary Awards for Thai Badminton Association president Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul and singer Athiwara Khongmalai (“Toon Bodyslam”).

Patama, also an International Olympic Committee member, was recognised for her work co-ordinating between Thai and international sports bodies while the leading singer of Bodyslam was honoured for his charity run across the country, which raised more than Bt33.6 million.

Selected List of Awards

Best Professional Athlete: Ariya Jutanugarn (golf)

Best Male Amateur Athlete: Jai Angsuthasawit (cyling)

Best Female Amateur Athlete: Panipak Wongpattanakit (taekwondo)

Best Male Junior Athlete: Atichai Phoemsap (boxing)

Best Female Junior: Atthaya Thitikul (golf)

Best Muay Thai Boxer: Tawanchai PK Saenchai Muay Thai Gym

Best Male Para Athlete: Pongsakorn Paeyor (Athletics)

Best Female Para Athlete: Suneeporn Tanomwong (Athletics)

Best Thai Coach: Danai Sriwatcharamethakul (Women’s volleyball team)

Best Foreign Coach: Juan Bautista Fontanills of Cuba (boxing)

Best Sports Team: National Women’s volleyball

Best Team event: National women’s badminton team

Best Sports Association: Thai Cycling Association

The 21-year-old from Surat Thani outclassed Minah to win the gold medal in the Olympics Qualifying tournament. It was an impressive finish to the season for the taekwondo exponent after major 2018 wins including two World Grand Prix titles, in Manchester and Taoyuan, and the Asian Games gold medal. She has won a total of six events over the past 12 months.

She also earned a 2020 Olympic quota for Thailand in the 49kg category and won the US$70,000 for yesterday’s victory.

Despite his lowly world ranking of 239, Poom refused to be cowed into submission by world No 2 Justin Rose, Sweden’s Henrik Stenson (No 27) and a host of Asian Tour champions assembled in Jakarta for the Asian Tour season finale.

“I really look up to Henrik [Stenson]. I was really happy when I saw his name in the field this week. I was hoping to play with him in the first two rounds actually. I was very happy when I finally get to play with him in the final round,” said Poom, 25, who won this event two years ago.

“I am very excited right now and looking forward to a better season next year. I can’t wait to come back and defend my title,” added Poom, dubbed the Baby-Faced Assassin for his youthful looks.

Like his first Indonesian Masters victory in 2016, Poom had his uncle, Pratya Ployprapai, on his bag again. Together, they forged another formidable partnership to win by three shots with a four-day total of 20-under-par 268.

Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond started the day six shots behind Poom in third place, but stormed out in 32 and then birdied 10 and eagled 12 to lie within striking distance of his third Asian Tour title.

However, two dropped shots on 15 and 17 put paid to his hopes before eagle-three on 18 saw him end his Asian Tour season with seven top-10s and one victory.

Thailand’s Panuphol Pittayarat, who won his National open in June, claimed his third top-10 result of the season by finishing third with a bogey-free final round 66 at the US$750,000 event.

A charge by Stenson to deny Poom glory failed to materialise as the Swede’s putter went cold.

Defending champion Justin Rose had to finish tied-16th or better to move back to world No 1 but posted a disappointing 75 to finish tied-17th.

The 23-year-old has suffered a series of near-misses in recent years, winning silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and again at the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games this year.

The world number six, renowned for her never-say-die attitude, has also twice lost in the final of the World Championships and was runner-up in last year’s season finale.

But she put all that heartbreak behind her in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, beating the fifth-ranked Okuhara 21-19, 21-17 in the women’s final in just over an hour.

Sindhu, who was always in control of the match, sealed the championship with a forehand smash, before collapsing to the court floor on her hands and knees.

The men’s final later Sunday tees up the two top players in the world, top-ranked Kento Momota of Japan against number two and home star Shi Yuqi.