Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge scored twice as Liverpool beat Swansea in a thriller to tighten their grip on fourth place in the Premier League.
Sturridge’s opener came two minutes in and Henderson soon bent in a second.
But Jonjo Shelvey pulled one back with a fine 20-yard shot and Wilfried Bony headed in off Martin Skrtel to level.
Sturridge headed in his second from Luis Suarez’s cross but Bony pulled Swansea level from the penalty spot before Henderson stabbed in the winner.
The best and worst of Liverpool was once again on show as the Reds closed the gap to Premier League leaders Chelsea to four points.
But manager Brendan Rodgers was once again relying on his team’s attacking class to override its defensive deficiencies as they maintained their bid to end a five-season exile from the Champions League.
There were flashes of fine forward play as Sturridge became only the second player to score in eight consecutive Premier League matches, taking his tally to 18 league goals for the season in the process.
The Reds are now the Premier League’s top scorers with 70 goals but looked ragged at the back far too often for Rodgers’s comfort.
Garry Monk’s Swansea, who remain four points above the relegation zone, deserve credit for the way they fought back from Liverpool’s early goals, and showed no little quality themselves after the exertions of Thursday’s goalless draw with Napoli in the Europa League.
The hosts moved in front after just two minutes when Raheem Sterling played through Sturridge, who took the ball around visiting keeper Michel Vorm and clipped it into an empty net.
But the Reds were far from convincing, and Swansea had created two chances for Bony before Henderson doubled their advantage.
Sturridge chased down a long ball from Suarez and drifted in from the right before laying off for Henderson to bend a shot into the top corner.
But two minutes later the visitors made good on their early threat, Nathan Dyer cutting in from the right and feeding former Liverpool man Shelvey, who curled a first-time shot into the top corner off the underside of the bar.
And Monk’s side were level four minutes later when Jonathan de Guzman’s free-kick was headed in by Bony via a deflection off Skrtel.
But Liverpool restored their advantage 10 minutes before the break when Philippe Coutinho found Suarez and the Uruguayan lifted a cross to the far post for Sturridge to head in.
Again the lead was destined not to last. Two minutes after the interval Skrtel was penalised for his grapple with Bony in the area and the Swansea striker found the corner with the resulting spot-kick.
As the hosts looked to go back in front, Vorm turned wide from Suarez and Skrtel headed over from the Steven Gerrard corner that followed.
De Guzman bent a free-kick just wide at the other end but with 15 minutes left Henderson stabbed the Reds ahead for the third time.
Suarez’s shot was blocked by Ashley Williams and after Vorm blocked Henderson’s first shot the England midfielder prodded in the rebound from six yards.
Liverpool were not about to give up the lead again and Gerrard even had a late effort deflected on to the post by Chico Flores as they pressed for a fifth.
BBC SPORT
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