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LONDON (AP) — Liverpool slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Watford in the Premier League on Sunday, while managerless Swansea drew 0-0 at home to West Ham at the Liberty Stadium.
Liverpool now trails the Champions League places by five points after its latest loss, while Swansea stayed in the relegation zone after taking a point.
Watford took the lead at Vicarage Road after only three minutes, Nathan Ake poking in after stand-in Liverpool goalkeeper Adam Bogdan, replacing the injured Simon Mignolet, dropped a corner.
Odion Ighalo then netted twice, with a composed finish in the 15th before heading in unmarked in the 85th as Liverpool was punished for a stagnant and unimaginative performance.
Manager Jurgen Klopp felt his side's reaction to conceding early contributed to the rest of their display.
"We lost our minds after the first goal, we lost our compact formation," Klopp said. "The reaction has to be better. We came here to do something really different than what you saw. Hopefully it is the most disappointing moment in my whole Liverpool FC life from now on."
Liverpool failed to offer anything in attack that worried Watford, which played at a higher tempo and with more attacking intent throughout the encounter.
The victory is its fourth in a row in the Premier League and leaves it only a point behind Tottenham in fourth, on 28.
"We are fighting a lot, we are very competitive," Watford manager Quique Sanchez Flores said. "I feel completely happy with the performance and the players. We are playing against amazing teams but we control the matches."
In Wales, Swansea missed some good chances in the first half against West Ham as it failed to claim the victory that would have lifted it out of the relegation zone.
Andre Ayew, Ki Sung-yueng and Jack Cork failed to convert opportunities as Swansea stayed in the bottom three, two points adrift of safety.
West Ham substitute Enner Valencia almost won it for the visitors late on but his strike was tipped over the bar by Lukasz Fabianski as Slaven Bilic's side settled for its third straight goalless draw.
Swansea caretaker manager Alan Curtis challenged his team to be more ruthless in attack.
"We can all see that we are lacking a cutting edge," Curtis said. "At least we looked like a Swansea City team again but we need to find something in the final third."
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