'Hopefully we keep going in that direction,' says Salah as Liverpool go eight points clear at the top
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah celebrates scoring their side's third goal of the game. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.
Only two teams in Premier League history have won 10 of their opening 12 games and failed to win the league but even putting that point to Arne Slot could not trigger a shift in his pragmatic demeanour.
At St Mary’s, Slot’s team embodied the manager's mentality. This wasn’t a vintage Liverpool performance but ultimately it was sufficiently efficient to leave them eight points clear of Manchester City ahead of Pep Guardiola’s visit to Anfield on Sunday.
Mohamed Salah once again provided his side’s inspiration, scoring twice as his side came from behind to beat Russell Martin’s embattled Southampton, who, in direct parallel to Liverpool, have lost 10 of their opening 12 games, a position from which no side has ever recovered in the Premier League.
Anything less than victory would have been deeply unsatisfactory for Slot and his players but the way they recovered after the home side had overturned Dominik Szoboszlai’s opening goal with efforts from Adam Armstrong and Manuel Fernandes was a further demonstration of the resolve they have shown this season.
The narrow nature of the victory also added to Slot’s determination to keep feet firmly planted on the ground.
“We know what we have to put into it to get this league and these wins,” he said.
“I think there were maybe one or two games for us that were wins by a big margin but the rest of them were all by small margins. So we know how difficult it is to win a game and these players have been longer in the Premier League than I've been.
“But I think it was last season, even later on in the season, that Arsenal led by eight points and City came back. So you know if you face Arsenal, City, Chelsea and all these other teams they are all able to win so many games in a row so it's nice to have this position but we are definitely not getting carried away.”
Szoboszlai echoed his manager’s views. "It is a great feeling but it is the beginning of the season,” said the midfielder. “We just need to continue and not think where the other teams are."
Next up is Wednesday’s Champions League home meeting with Real Madrid, who will present a very different type of challenge. It has been 13 years since a side bottom of the Premier League has beaten the side at the top but this was far from a nerveless afternoon for Slot.
Just seven minutes had elapsed when Southampton lodged their first penalty appeal after Armstrong stepped inside Ibrahima Konate and tumbled under his challenge.
But on half an hour, Martin’s dogmatic insistence that his team pass out from the back once again proved his undoing. McCarthy rolled the ball to Matheus Fernandes, who was quickly pressured off it on the edge of his own area by Curtis Jones.
The loose ball fell to Flynn Downes but his hasty clearance dropped straight to Szoboszlai and he curled into the far corner.
Saints tried to rally quickly and Downes came close to equalising with a low shot which Caoimhin Kelleher just about turned round the post. Then, five minutes before half time, Southampton’s exciting young forward Tyler Dibling drove at Andy Robertson, who brought him down right on the 18-yard line.
A lengthy VAR check backed up Sam Barrott’s award of a penalty and Armstrong scored the spot kick on the rebound after Kelleher had saved his first attempt.
A double injury blow meant Southampton lost Adam Lallana and Paul Onuachu either side of half time but despite those setbacks, they took the lead when Fernandes scored his first Premier League goal, rounding off a counter-attack in which Dibling was once again instrumental.
From the 18 year-old’s clever turn and cross-field pass, Armstrong found the run of Fernandes, who tucked the ball in first time to send St Mary’s wild.
The euphoria didn’t last long and Southampton were undone once more by an error. This time it was McCarthy who found himself in no-man’s-land when Ryan Gravenberch floated a ball over for Salah to poke it first-time beyond Saints’ stricken keeper.
Then 10 minutes from time, Saints sub Yuki Sugawara attempted to chest the ball back to his goalkeeper but it brushed off his arm and gave Liverpool a penalty.
Salah expertly dispatched it into the top-left corner to score his 10th Premier League goal of the season to extend The Reds’ lead at the top. Going in search of his hat-trick, Salah struck a post late on but Liverpool’s unbeaten run stretches to 14 games.
Focus now shifts to a demanding week and the Egyptian admits the meeting with City at Anfield offers an opportunity for his side to further tighten their grip on the top of the table.
"It's great. Hopefully, we keep going in that direction,” said the forward. “We have a game against them so hopefully, we win it and go 11 points clear. Man City is Man City. They have a bad time now but they have great players.”
McCarthy 6; Walker-Peters 7, Harwood-Bellis 7, Downes 6, Stephens 6, Fraser 6 (Sugawara 77, 6); Dibling 8, Fernandes 8, Lallana 7 (Aribo 37, 6); Onuachu 7 (Ugochukwu 52, 6), Armstrong 7 (Archer 77, 6).
Lumley (gk), Bree, Manning, Kamaldeen, Brereton-Diaz.
Lallana, Armstrong, Stephens.
Kelleher 6; Bradley 6, Konate 6, Van Dijk 7, Robertson 7; Jones 7 (Mac Allister 62, 6), Gravenberch 7; Salah 8, Szoboszlai 7, Gakpo 7 (Diaz 62, 6); Nunez 6 (Endo 89, 6).
Jaros (gk), Davies (gk), Gomez, Elliott, Quansah, Morton.
Bradley, Konate, Gakpo, Salah.
Sam Barrott 6.
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