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LIVERPOOL, England — A game which brought together two sides building for the future was decided by a player whose legacy has long since been established. There wasn’t much between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday but the home side prevailed with a 2-1 victory which took them back to the Premier League summit courtesy of Mohamed Salah’s enduring ability to deliver match-defining moments.
Salah was not at his devastating best — midfielder Curtis Jones produced a memorable all-action display en route to netting the winning goal on 51 minutes — but the 32-year-old forward produced a sublime cross to assist him after earlier opening the scoring from the penalty spot.
It is the 34th time he has registered a goal and assist in a Premier League game — only Wayne Rooney (36) has done it more often. And, after Chelsea had looked the better side early on, his emphatically converted 29th-minute penalty wrestled control of the game in Liverpool’s favour and took his league tally to 162, tied with Jermain Defoe at ninth on the all-time goal-scorers list. His 232 goal involvements also puts him tied sixth along with Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero on that measure.
This continuation of Salah’s end product has helped new manager Arne Slot settle in smoothly to the daunting task of replacing Jurgen Klopp on Merseyside, with seven wins from his first eight league games to top the table. The Egypt international has seven goals in 11 games across all competitions this season and perhaps benefitted from a freshness engineered by the decision not to play for his country in Mauritania a few days earlier due to a heightened risk of injury from that match taking place on a plastic pitch.
Slot knows he needs that buy-in from Liverpool’s talisman — with new contract talks looming as his existing deal approaches the final six months — also explaining why he highlighted his work off the ball as the home side hung on to their lead.
“He is important for us, for the numbers he has but it was a bit of a funny remark after the game, I said to Trent [Alexander-Arnold] ‘you have some competition now’ because I saw today that Mo can play as a right full-back as well,” Slot said afterwards. “So the defensive effort he put in today to help the team in that part is what pleased me just as much as his goal and assist.”
Liverpool needed to put in a defensive shift as Chelsea put in a performance which will encourage Blues boss Enzo Maresca that they are on the right track: the Blues had more touches in the opposition box in the first half of a league game than any other team in four years, registered 57% possession, and had consistent spells where they looked more threatening.
Cole Palmer is a wondrous talent but, in contrast to Salah, he wasn’t quite able to influence proceedings as he would have liked, firing over just before the interval and wasting a couple of shooting opportunities in the second half. The 22-year-old is quickly establishing himself as one of the Premier League’s finest match winners, but Salah has held that status for years.
In recent times, Chelsea have deliberately pursued a policy of predominantly signing players aged 24 and under. But for all their lavish spending, they don’t possess a battle-hardened talent of Salah’s pedigree to help polish rough performances during a period of transition. (The enduring irony, of course, is that Chelsea signed Salah aged 21 back in 2014 but that was during an era when young players found the route to the exit door much easier than the first-team dressing room.)
Salah’s penalty — won by Jones after a foul by Levi Colwill — stopped Chelsea in their tracks and on another afternoon where VAR checks were frequent and lengthy, they required a review in their favour to avoid conceding a second penalty as replays showed goalkeeper Robert Sánchez just got the ball ahead of Jones before taking him out.
Chelsea equalised three minutes after the restart as Nicolas Jackson collected Moisés Caicedo’s pass and finished superbly past Caoimhín Kelleher, deputising for the injured Alisson. But after Salah fed Jones, with Reece James caught fractionally deep and playing him onside, the England midfielder steered a fine effort past Sanchez to restore Liverpool’s lead within moments.
The Blues, to their credit, were undeterred. They were beaten 4-1 here back in January under Mauricio Pochettino, yet they finished the game the stronger side this time. It just wasn’t enough.
In the final phase we saw perhaps the clearest distinction between Slot’s Liverpool side and the Klopp era. Liverpool’s full-backs stopped going forward; Slot replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold with the more defensive-minded Joe Gomez for the final nine minutes; and Jones, who had been marauding forward from midfield, was replaced at the same time by Alexis Mac Allister.
The Argentina international sat deep alongside Ryan Gravenberch and tried to deny Chelsea any space in which to play. It contributed to a nervy finale, but Slot is not Klopp, whose inclination would been to go for the kill when Chelsea wavered after falling behind at 1-0 and, briefly, at 2-1.
Both sides are trying to implement fresh ideas and building belief. Slot is attempting tweaks rather than wholesale changes and that more-settled environment gave Liverpool the edge over Chelsea, who started life under their new manager with another aggressive overhaul of their squad.
“We don’t like losing games, dropping points but if you have to decide the way, then this is probably the way,” Maresca said afterwards. “I’ve been in the stadium many times and have seen Liverpool for a long time — it’s not easy. I think overall, we controlled the game and for most parts of the game we dominated the game, but we lost.”
Chelsea’s defending must improve after just two clean sheets in eight league games; Liverpool can look ahead with greater optimism.
“The better the teams you face the more you need [fight],” Slot said. “In the Premier League, there are so many good teams so if you want to win at least you need to fight and then hopefully the individuals can make the difference.”
Salah continues to do just that.
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