Salah steers Reds through the wind and rain of St Mary’s to go 8 points clear
Southampton 2 Liverpool 3, 24th November 2024
SOUTHAMPTON 2 (Armstrong 42, Fernandes 56)
LIVERPOOL 3 (Szoboszlai 30, Salah 65 and 83)
As the final vestiges of “Storm Bert” lashed Southampton’s St Mary’s home beside the docks, through the wind and rain and the sporting theory of chaos, Liverpool walked on to register their tenth Premier League win from their opening dozen games to this evening sit comfortably back upon their perch at the summit of English football and 8 points clear of stumbling defending champions Manchester City. Today’s result, and 3–2 away win on the wintry south coast at the league’s bottom placed team was in serious, serious doubt for 80 minutes and for all but an hour of those footballing minutes the Reds of Liverpool were disjointed, out of sorts and a jigsaw puzzle of pieces blowing in the wind. Arne Slot’s Liverpool only had complete and supreme control of the game for 20 mid first half minutes whereby their shaky defensive line finally set a base camp in the Southampton half of the field, Curtis Jones pressed and forced the first of a multitude of mistakes that littered today’s game, and Dominik Szoboszlai curled a beautiful opening goal exactly on the half hour. But mistakes would quickly follow, from skipper Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson and following Mateus Fernandes rounding off a brilliant breakaway goal so reminiscent of the team he was scoring against on 56 minutes the Reds were in danger of not only squandering today’s dominance against a doomed to relegation Southampton, but also a possibly season defining advantage over a Manchester City team falling to their fifth straight defeat in all competitions.
Step forward the “Egyptian King”, Mo Salah.
Denied twice by Alex McCarthy in quick succession with near post saves in a first half overflowing with them as the veteran goalkeeper also beat away near post efforts from Cody Gakpo, Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, Mo Salah would yet again be the Liverpool goal scoring hero and yet again pluck 3 precious Premier League points from seemingly nowhere. Although the Reds would only trail 2–1 for 9 second half minutes before Salah’s impudent equaliser (but following yet another mistake on a day full of them from McCarthy in the Southampton goal), Liverpool continued to labour in the stormy conditions. McCarthy made amends of sorts with a brilliant tip over save to deny Luis Díaz a flicked headed goal on 67 minutes but in truth there was no sign of a winning goal until yet another mistake, this time from Southampton substitute Yukinari Sugawara, presented a needless penalty on 83 minutes and Mo Salah did what Mo Salah does, smashing a winning goal into the opposition’s net before ripping his shirt off and leaping for joy in front of the travelling Red hordes sheltering from the storm in the Away End.
“Liverpool. Liverpool. Top of the League
Liverpool
Top of the League”
Let’s see what the boss thought of it all.
Arne’s Afterword
“Over the moon is a bit exaggerating but of course we are really happy. Especially because after an hour we were 2–1 down. Maybe that wasn’t a reflection of how the first hour went because I think we dominated the whole game, which is not that easy, maybe you think we played the number 20 team and this is what we expect, but I’ve seen many games of Southampton that they were dominating the game. In the end, if you’re 2–1 down after an hour you are maybe over the moon if you win 3–2”.
“It’s normal if you score at 2–2 it helps you back in the game but we needed that goal maybe to play the last 25 minutes that we played because then for me it was a matter of time before we scored a goal. In the first hour we dominated possession without really creating that much. In the last half-hour we were dominating — or the last 25 minutes — with creating some chances”.
“We know how difficult it is to win a game and these players have been longer in the Premier League than I have been. I think it was last season and even later on in the season that Arsenal led by eight points and City came back, so you know if you face Arsenal, City, Chelsea and all these other teams — Tottenham were great yesterday, as well — they’re all able to win so many games in a row. It’s nice to have this position, but we are definitely not getting carried away”.
Thanks for reading. I pen my thoughts on each and every Liverpool game and I’m proud to show off the pun intended results of this in the following two self-published books:
"A final word from The Boss" - link to Amazon
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.