Football: Liverpool fall further behind in English Premier League title race with loss at Leicester

Ademola Lookman scored the winner for Leicester after Mohamed Salah had a penalty saved. Photo / AP

Losses for Liverpool are about as rare as penalty misses by Mohamed Salah.

Both happened on Wednesday (NZ time) and, even at the halfway stage of the season, it could cost Jürgen Klopp's team the Premier League title.

Liverpool was beaten 1-0 by a patched-up Leicester team and could find itself nine points behind Manchester City heading into the new year, if the leaders win at Brentford on Thursday (NZ time).

It's a cushion that might prove to be insurmountable given City is on a nine-match winning streak in the league and is looking unstoppable, scoring 17 goals in its last three victories.

Liverpool also will soon be without its two star forwards, Salah and Sadio Mane, who are heading to the African Cup of Nations next week. They were granted permission to delay joining up with their national teams ahead of the tournament so they could play for Liverpool over the festive period but they couldn't make the difference at King Power Stadium.

Salah won a penalty but saw his weak effort saved by Kasper Schmeichel in the 16th minute, thereby failing to convert a spot kick for the first time in 16 attempts. His last penalty miss was against Huddersfield in October 2017.

Liverpool ultimately slumped to only its second loss in all competitions this season when substitute Ademola Lookman found space between Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk and shot inside the near post in the 59th minute.

"There were too many performances below normal level," Klopp said.

"So often these boys give me the opportunity to say, 'Wow, what a game!' Tonight it's, 'Wow!' but in completely the other way."

Liverpool is tied on 41 points with Chelsea, and both are six points behind City. All three teams have played 19 games, with City and Chelsea — at home to Brighton — in action on Thursday (NZ time).

In Southampton, the Saints were able to hold on for a 1-1 draw against Tottenham despite being down to 10-men for more than half of the game.

Tottenham had two goals ruled out in the second half, and now sit sixth on the ladder.

Elsewhere, Crystal Palace disptached a struggling Norwich side 3-0, while West Ham beat Watford 4-1.