Liverpool's Ekitike scores twice, Salah gets warm reception in win over Brighton

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike bagged a double to secure a 2-0 Premier League victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday while talisman Mohamed Salah, whose future at the Merseyside team is uncertain, recorded a landmark assist on an emotional afternoon.

Arne Slot’s men climbed provisionally to sixth in the table on 26 points after 16 matches, seven behind leaders Arsenal, while Brighton are now three points off Liverpool in ninth.

“For the first time in weeks, I feel like we had a bit of luck today,” Slot told the BBC. “Maybe we deserved this bit of luck, because of the mentality that we showed and the injuries and other things like that.”

Close-season signing Ekitike fired the hosts into a first-minute lead 47 seconds in — the quickest goal in the league this season — after Yankuba Minteh’s dreadful attempted clearance.

Joe Gomez headed the ball back in and it dropped perfectly for Ekitike, whose shot on the turn beat goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.

Salah, whose future was plunged into doubt following his scathing criticism of Slot and the club a week ago, came on to a standing ovation and loud applause as a 26th-minute substitute after an injury to Gomez.

The 33-year-old, who leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday, was heavily involved from the moment he stepped on the pitch and got an assist in the 60th minute when his pinpoint corner to the back post found Ekitike who headed home Liverpool’s first league goal from a corner this season.

SALAH CLAIMS RECORD FOR GOAL INVOLVEMENTS

With the assist, Salah claimed the outright record for the most goal involvements for a single team in Premier League history with 277, passing Wayne Rooney’s 276 with Manchester United.

It was Salah’s name the fans sang after the goal, which came seconds after the Egyptian played a ball to Ekitike on a three-on-two counter, with the French striker’s shot palmed over the bar by Verbruggen.

A moment of glory looked written for Salah in injury time, but he fired over the bar from 10 yards out following a counter led by Federico Chiesa.

The main difficulty for us was to synchronize the trajectories in order to be really crossing at the same point just between the towers.

Salah looked emotional as he applauded the fans after the final whistle.

“I think he was a threat,” Slot said. “The first ball he touched, he almost made an assist for (Alexis) Mac Allister. Pleasing to see but not a surprise.

“It was an easy decision to put him in the squad. I have said many times before what has been said between us will stay between us.

We needed him and he assisted to the 2-0 which is nice for us. We have been so many times this season on the wrong side of the set-piece battle.”

Liverpool’s much-needed victory marked back-to-back wins after they beat Inter Milan 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday.

“The most important was to win in front of our fans. It was a good day at work,” Ekitike said.

“Today wasn’t easy. We had to stay compact and stick together. I think we deserved it. We did a great week and let’s continue.

“When you play for Liverpool, you just have to win games. We are Liverpool, we need to win.”