Liverpool manager Arne Slot praised a “special” contribution from Mohamed Salah after his two goals helped the team recover from a goal down to beat Southampton 3-2 and move eight points clear at the top of the Premier League.
The league leaders were heading for a shock defeat to the division’s bottom side when midfielder Mateus Fernandes swept Saints in front in the 56th minute, but Salah was on hand to turn the game around.
First he beat goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to a through ball from Ryan Gravenberch, then 10 minutes from time blasted the ball into the top corner from the penalty spot following a needless handball by Yukinari Sugawara.
Dominik Szoboszlai had taken advantage of terrible Southampton defending midway through the first half to curl his side into the lead, but a penalty tucked home on the rebound by Adam Armstrong levelled things before the break to set up a topsy-turvy second half.
Ultimately a telling intervention from Salah settled a blistering encounter.
“We always know we can trust him when things are difficult for us,” said Slot. “After we went 2-1 down I didn’t really feel that that was the moment we would score.
“It was a fantastic pass from Ryan Gravenberch, but the timing of the run and the finish was special.
“That really helped us back in the game, and we needed that goal to play the last 25 minutes that we played, because for me then it was only a matter of time until we scored.”
Liverpool have won 10 of their first 12 Premier League games under Slot making him just the third manager in the competition’s history to achieve that feat, after Guus Hiddink and Carlo Ancelotti.
It will be remembered as one of the more hard-fought victories of his early tenure as Saints defied their predicament at the foot of the table to turn in a committed and at times ferocious performance.
“We’re really happy, especially because after an hour we were 2-1 down and maybe that wasn’t a reflection of how the first hour went,” said Slot.
“I think we dominated the whole game, which is not that easy.
“I’ve seen many Southampton games where they have dominated the game. But if you’re 2-1 down after an hour you’re maybe over the moon if you win 3-2.
“We know what we have to put into it to get the [eight-point] lead we have at the moment and to get these wins.
“There have been one or two games that were wins by a big margin but the rest were small margins, so we know how difficult it is to win a game.”
As so often this season, Southampton set the traps for their own downfall.
Three goals conceded, all of them in some way attributable to individual errors in defence, though this was all the harder to bear for manager Russell Martin given how determinedly his team had worked to get themselves in front.
“My overriding feeling is the frustration and disappointment of the goals we conceded, it’s just so poor,” said Martin.
“If [Liverpool] produce a moment of magic or score a brilliant team goal you can maybe accept it, but the quality of the goals we conceded is so bad. So bad.
“There was so much I enjoyed about the performance, the threat was much better in the final third and the attacking threat we had.
“But we needed to take the sting out of the game and manage it.”
