Liverpool, Salah show Chelsea's 'kids' why experience matters

Agencies Liverpool: A game which brought together two sides building for the future was decided by a player whose legacy has long since been established. There wasn't much between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday but the home side prevailed with a 2-1 victory which took them back to the Premier League summit courtesy of Mohamed Salah's enduring ability to deliver matchdefining moments. Salah was not at his devastating best midfielder Curtis Jones produced a memorable all-action display en route to netting the winning goal on 51 minutes but the 32-year-old forward produced a sublime cross to assist him after earlier opening the scoring from the penalty spot.

It is the 34th time he has registered a goal and assist in a Premier League game only Wayne Rooney (36) has done it more often. And, after Chelsea had looked the better side early on, his emphatically converted 29thminute penalty wrestled control of the game in Liverpool's favour and took his league tally to 162, tied with Jermain Defoe at ninth on the all-time goal-scorers list. His 232 goal involvements also puts him tied sixth along with Manchester City legend Sergio Aguero on that measure. This continuation of Salah's end product has helped new manager Arne Slot settle in smoothly to the daunting task of replacing Jurgen Klopp on Merseyside, with seven wins from his first eight league games to top the table. The Egypt international has seven goals in 11 games across all competitions this season and perhaps benefitted from a freshness engineered by the decision not to play for his country in Mauritania a few days earlier due to a heightened risk of injury from that match taking place on a plastic pitch. Slot knows he needs that buy-in from Liverpool's talisman with new contract talks looming as his existing deal approaches the final six months also explaining why he highlighted his work off the ball as the home side hung on to their lead. "He is important for us, for the numbers he has but it was a bit of a funny remark after the game, I said to Trent [Alexander-Arnold] 'you have some competition now' because I saw today that Mo can play as a right full-back as well," Slot said afterwards.

"So the defensive effort he put in today to help the team in that part is what pleased me just as much as his goal and assist." Liverpool needed to put in a defensive shift as Chelsea put in a performance which will encourage Blues boss Enzo Maresca that they are on the right track: the Blues had more touches in the opposition box in the first half of a league game than any other team in four years.