Salah seals comeback win for Liverpool against Southampton to stretch lead | Premier League

The view from the top looks beautiful for Liverpool, 16 points clear after another comeback against Southampton. From Arne Slot’s elevated position up in the Anfield directors’ box, however, he could see warning signs with Paris Saint-Germain on the horizon.

“When I look at the first game against PSG, we have to go one step up in terms of intensity,” said the Liverpool head coach. “And compared to the game today, we need to go five, six, seven steps up in terms of intensity if we want to have any chance of reaching the next round.”

The French champions will not be as obliging as the Premier League’s bottom club in Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg should Liverpool repeat this display. Slot insisted this was a one-off.

The Premier League leaders required two Mohamed Salah penalties to move closer to the title after Darwin Núñez cancelled out Will Smallbone’s opener for Ivan Juric’s doomed side. The hosts also needed an injection of energy and quality from a triple half-time substitution to rouse themselves from a lethargic and sloppy opening. Southampton were able to grow in confidence and menace before stunning Anfield by taking the lead. They would ultimately bemoan three video assistant referee reviews that went against them.

Slot had labelled Southampton’s visit as the first of three finals this week. “I’m hoping we play a bit better in the next two finals than we did in the first one,” he admitted after serving the final game of his touchline ban.

The Liverpool head coach had his head in his hands when a calamitous mix-up handed Southampton the breakthrough. That Virgil van Dijk and the hero of Paris, Alisson, were involved heightened the unease inside Anfield. The Liverpool captain attempted to shepherd a Ryan Manning throw-in back to his goalkeeper but Alisson, off balance after a Mateus Fernandes challenge, failed to collect. The ball squirmed loose to Smallbone, who squeezed a low shot through the Brazilian’s legs and in from a tight angle.

Liverpool could have been in a worse position before half-time. The VAR checked a possible red card offence by Núñez after he was booked for taking a swipe at Kyle Walker-Peters. Núñez made no attempt to play the ball but the VAR stuck with the on-field decision of the new Premier League referee Lewis Smith.

Slot’s half-time changes said everything about Liverpool’s performance. His selection appeared risky from the off with only Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Diogo Jota rested from the team that started at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday. There was no reward of a first league start of the season for Harvey Elliott, though he was among the half-time replacements for Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas. The impact was immediate.

Elliott almost repeated his PSG performance by scoring within seconds of his arrival. Aaron Ramsdale, who saved well from Trent Alexander-Arnold but was relatively untroubled in the first half, turned the 21-year-old’s drive wide of the far post. There was a sharpness and aggression to Liverpool that had been absent before the changes. Now Slot witnessed the intensity he had called for.

Liverpool swiftly drew level thanks, almost inevitably from a Southampton perspective, to Núñez. The move was instigated by one of the half-time substitutes, Robertson, who found Luis Díaz hugging the left touchline. Díaz darted past Walker-Peters to the byline and centred for the Uruguay striker to convert at the near post.

The game turned moments later when Ramsdale saved from Díaz and Núñez went down under a challenge from Smallbone as Southampton attempted to clear. Smith awarded a soft penalty, the VAR did not intervene, and Salah swept an unstoppable spot-kick into Ramsdale’s right corner. The 242nd goal of Salah’s Liverpool career moved him to outright third in the club’s all-time goalscorers’ list. “It was not a penalty and that changed the match,” said an angry Juric. “This cannot be a penalty ever.”

Juric also bemoaned the award of Liverpool’s second penalty but conceded Yukinari Sugawara “needs to be more careful” after he handled following a tussle with Díaz. A Sugawara handball gave Salah a spot-kick to complete Liverpool’s comeback at St Mary’s Stadium in November. Here it presented the Egypt international with the opportunity to go joint -fifth on the all-time Premier League scorers’ chart with Sergio Agüero. The phenomenal forward’s 184th top-flight goal was drilled emphatically into Ramsdale’s top left corner.