For a moment, Mohamed Salah’s shirt was gone with the wind, resting somewhere on the edge of the Southampton box. He had whipped it off, baring his lean, cartoonish torso in filthy conditions as he celebrated his second goal, from the penalty spot, to open up an eight-point lead at the summit of the Premier League, in front of the visiting Liverpool supporters going berserk in a pocket of this stadium. Then Luis Díaz retrieved Salah’s No 11.
On the face of it, at kick-off this was a mismatch between the teams top and bottom of the division but Liverpool, who opened the scoring through Dominik Szoboszlai, trailed to goals by Adam Armstrong and the impressive Mateus Fernandes. But Salah restored parity, struck the winner and then hit a post late on to leave Arne Slot’s side admiring the view. Slot’s businesslike thumbs up to the away end at the final whistle was the crowning moment, though they will have to improve when Real Madrid come to town on Wednesday.
