Liverpool’s returning Mohamed Salah made history when he came off the bench against Brighton, with Hugo Ekitike’s double lifting the champions to sixth in the Premier League with a comfortable 2-0 win over Brighton.
Salah, who returned to the squad following a meeting with head coach Slott on Friday, was brought on earlier than expected in the 26th minute to replace the injured Joe Gomez, and was greeted with loud cheers at Anfield, putting any bad feelings at the Leeds press conference behind him.
Ekitike scored twice in two successive league games, but the Egyptian forward’s impressive performance in his last appearance for Liverpool before AFCON will be remembered as the game ended with an assist and more.
Speaking after the match, Slott said there were “no issues to resolve” after the club left Salah out of the squad that will send him to Inter in the Champions League, and said he hoped the 33-year-old could bring back the form he showed against Brighton from the AFCON.
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Mohamed Salah returns to Liverpool against Brighton
Salah set up Ekitike’s towering header and scored his second goal from a late corner kick, surpassing Wayne Rooney’s all-time goals tally for Manchester United and setting the all-time record for involvement in a Premier League goal by a single club.
His 277th goal involvement in the league at Livprole (188 goals, 89 assists) ended a three-game scoreless streak in official games. He almost got sent off after scoring a goal, but he ended up firing home from Federico Chiesa’s cross in the closing stages.
Liverpool were already in the lead when Salah was brought on after Ekitike scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season just 46 seconds into the game. It was a poor clearance from Yankuba Minte that allowed Gomez’s header to equalize for the Frenchman.
Hugo Ekitike celebrates after scoring his second goal against Brighton
Ekitike makes a breakthrough to put Liverpool up 2-0
Brighton’s Diego Gomez failed to convert two big chances to equalize the scores in the final stages of the first half, but was lucky to remain on the pitch as the second man sitting at the back post, overcoming a VAR check for a high attack on Florian Wirths.
Despite falling short of their xG, Liverpool made a potentially difficult afternoon look easier than expected, extending their unbeaten run in all competitions to five games and overtaking Brighton, who have fallen to ninth place with a winless run in three games.
Salah stopped after the match to thank the home fans and continued to sing his name throughout the afternoon, but gave little indication as to whether this would be his farewell match. The Liverpool icon has bid farewell for now, but only time will tell if he is on the same page as Slott.
Slots: No issues to resolve with Salah
Liverpool manager Arne Slott on Salah:
“For me there are no issues to solve. He is like any other player now. I talk to the players about whether they are happy or dissatisfied with things, but after the game there is nothing for me to say about what happened against Leeds.”
“The reason he wasn’t at Milan was the interview. The question is always, and everyone has a different opinion, whether he should take one, two, four, four months, 12 months, 12 years (on the bench).”
“Every coach makes a different decision about that. He was not involved in the game against (Inter) Milan, but I spoke to him yesterday (Friday).
“I don’t usually say anything about what I’m talking about, so I’m not going to make an exception now, but I think actions speak louder than words.
“He was in the team again and when I had to make the first substitution, I brought him in and he’s what I think all the fans, including myself, would like to see his performance today.”
Hürzeler: “Brighton deserved more, maybe even won”
Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler:
“We definitely deserved more, maybe even the win, but we created too many chances. We started poorly, we didn’t react well and we didn’t defend our set-pieces well.
“The important thing is consistency and keeping going for 90 minutes, and that’s where we lost. We had some important moments, we had good chances to score. We have to take responsibility for that loss. The game was meant to be won, but in the end we didn’t win.”
“We could definitely have avoided the goal. The important thing is to get a good start and defend the set-pieces. Set-pieces are becoming very important so we have to improve.”
