Darwin Nunez escapes red, then masterminds Liverpool comeback against Southampton

Ireland international Will Smallbone had give Southampton a first half lead. Liverpool now have a 16-point lead over Arsenal, though the Gunners have two games in hand.

After Liverpool trailed to Southampton at half-time, Darwin Nunez scored an equaliser and then won a penalty, which Mo Salah converted to give his side the lead. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

Premier League: Liverpool 3 Southampton 1

DARWIN Nunez escaped a possible red card to mastermind Liverpool’s come from behind victory against struggling Southampton, a result that kept their march to the Premier League title firmly on course.

Trailing at the break, Nunez levelled and then won a penalty, converted by Mo Salah, as Arne Slot’s side opened up a 16-point lead on second placed Arsenal, although the Gunners have two games in hand.

Liverpool turned the game around with two goals in the space of three minutes early in the second half with Nunez, who had been booked late in the first half before VAR opted not to upgrade the yellow to a red, heavily involved in both.

The equaliser, cancelling out Ireland international Will Smallbone’s first half opener, came after 51 minutes when the Liverpool striker finished clinically from six yards after a mazy run and pull back from Luis Diaz.

It was a marked turnaround from a lacklustre first half showing from the leaders and, within seconds, Diaz had seen a shot well saved, with the Saints failing to clear the danger.

As Liverpool kept the attack alive, Smallbone nudged Nunez off the ball and referee Lewis Smith pointed to the spot. It was barely 90 seconds after the equaliser although, by the time Salah inevitably blasted in his 26th goal of the season from the penalty spot, three minutes had elapsed.

Salah was not finished with his penalty duties as, with the game seemingly heading to a 2-1 Liverpool win the hosts won a penalty, after a VAR check, for handball by Yukinari Sugawara.

The Liverpool striker was just as clinical from the 88th minute penalty as he had been from the earlier one and stroked in goal number 27 in his Premier League season.

Yet the form book had been well and truly ripped up, in the first minute of first half stoppage time when Liverpool panicked at a Ryan Manning throw-in.

Virgil van Dijk and Alisson should have had no difficulty in dealing with the ball but, as Mateus Fernandes pressured the keeper, the pair failed to communicate and the Southampton man’s challenge saw the ball ricochet back into the area.

There was Smallbone who deposited the ball into the back of the Liverpool net with a shot that passed through the legs of Alisson at his near post.

It was a bizarre goal and a far cry from the defensive master class Alisson and his team had put on in the midweek Champions League win at PSG. And while Liverpool, not to mention Anfield, had been strangely flat, there had been no hint that they were in danger of falling behind.

Slot had spoken before the game of three cup finals for his team this week, starting here and following on with the second leg against PSG on Tuesday and an actual final, in the Carabao Cup, against Newcastle next Sunday.

He had asked for the crowd, as well as his players, to treat the visit of lowly Southampton with the same sort of importance but it was an appeal that seemed to fall on deaf ears.

There were first half moments that threatened but, apart from a routine Aaron Ramsdale save, from Nunez’s shot on the turn, there was no real threat on the visitors’ goal.

Liverpool frustrations were summed up by Nunez who was booked, and might even have been red carded for a petulant swipe at the legs of Kyle Walker-Peters.

Slot had certainly seen enough by the interval and made a triple substitution at half-time, with one of the replacements, midweek match winning hero Harvey Elliott, almost scoring after two minutes, forcing Ramsdale into an impressive diving turn around his post.

LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 6; Alexander-Arnold 6, Konate 6, van Dijk 5, Tsimikas 5 (Robertson 46, 6); Szoboszlai 5 (Mac Allister 46, 7), Gravenberch 6 (Endo 81), Jones 6 (Elliott 46, 7); Salah 8, Nunez 8 (Jota 68, 5), Diaz 7. 

Substitutes (not used) Chiesa, Kelleher, McConnell, Quansah.

SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): Ramsdale 7; Walker-Peters 6, Bednarek 6 (Bella-Kotchap 18, 6), Harwood-Bellis 6, Manning 6 (Aribo 83); Ugochukwu 6 (Onuachu 83), Smallbone 7 (Lallana 72, 5); Dibling 6 (Sugawara 64, 5), Fernandes 6, Sulemana 6; Gronbaek 6 (Archer 64, 5). 

Substitutes (not used) McCarthy, Wellington, Stephens.

Referee: L Smith 7