Southampton 2 Liverpool 3: Salah to the rescue... but what happened at the back? And was it a penalty?

Mohamed Salah scored twice in the second half to send Liverpool eight points clear at the top of the Premier League, but they made hard work of beating bottom club Southampton.

They trailed 2-1 with 25 minutes to go, but a clever first-time finish by Salah got Arne Slot’s team level before he hammered home an 83rd-minute penalty to secure the win.

Dominik Szoboszlai gave Liverpool the lead on the half-hour after Southampton’s insistence on playing out from the back cost them dearly and it looked like a routine victory was on the cards. But the home side were level three minutes before half-time when Andy Robertson’s foul on Tyler Dibling was ruled to have happened just inside the box. Adam Armstrong’s penalty was saved by Caoimhin Kelleher, but the striker converted the rebound.

It got even better for Southampton 11 minutes after the break when Mateus Fernandes finished off superb work by Dibling and Armstrong.

Slot soon introduced Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister for Cody Gakpo and Curtis Jones and though Diaz fluffed a great chance within a minute of coming on, Liverpool were level in the 65th minute when Salah coolly poked past advancing goalkeeper Alex McCarthy.

The Egypt forward then converted from 12 yards after Yukinari Sugawara needlessly handled in the penalty area.

Tougher tests await Liverpool next week, with Real Madrid and Manchester City both visiting Anfield, but Slot’s team are sitting pretty in top spot in both the Premier League and Champions League.

The Athletic’s Andy Jones analyses the talking points.

Where were the solid Liverpool of the Slot era so far?

Liverpool entered this fixture with the best defensive record in the league but looked a shadow of the solid structure Slot has implemented since his arrival in the summer.

The defensive unit, led by centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, have oozed calmness during the first part of the season, conceding only six goals in the first 11 matches. Yet they were anything but that assured, stable force today against a Southampton side who had only scored seven in the same number of fixtures.

Striker Paul Onuachu was a surprise selection by Russell Martin and he used his power and height to unsettle Liverpool’s centre-backs early on and help Southampton move up the pitch. Konate got a yellow card after one foul.

The compact shape was also exposed, with Southampton’s midfielders finding plenty of space centrally to drive forward.

Dibling was the home side’s most impressive player, Liverpool were unable to live with his ball-carrying, and he was crucial to Southampton’s second goal. He beat Szoboszlai to a forward ball and worked it to Armstrong, who set up Fernandes.

It was a sloppy Liverpool performance throughout the match, but with tough tests to come, Slot must make sure today’s defensive problems are a blip rather than the start of a theme.

Can Liverpool afford to lose Salah?

When Liverpool needed one of their big players to dig them out of a hole, the Egyptian stepped forward once again.

There was some good fortune in how they regained the lead as Salah raced onto a pass over the top and tapped into an empty net after McCarthy had vacated his goal to try to reach the ball first, but he also made the chance look simple.

There was no doubt about his second as he slotted home a late penalty, given after a handball from Suguwara, with complete conviction.

That took him to 10 Premier League goals for the season and his only disappointment will be that he did not come away with the match ball having completed a hat-trick. He missed a handful of decent chances in the first half, then hit the post late on.

If Liverpool’s hierarchy had sense, they would try to tie him down to a contract extension to replace the deal expiring next summer as soon as possible because the longer they wait, the more Salah strengthens his case.

Even at 32 years old, he continues to be indispensable.

Was it a penalty for Southampton’s equaliser?

When Robertson fouled Dibling just before half-time, referee Samuel Barrott took his time before pointing to the spot.

It was the tightest of calls. Initial replays suggested the foul had occurred outside the 18-yard box, but the zoomed-in slow-motion footage of the incident showed Dibling’s toe being on the line of the Liverpool area when Robertson made his challenge.

Michael Oliver, the game’s VAR, who was criticised last month after telling referee David Coote to go to the screen for West Ham United’s late penalty that secured a win against Manchester United, felt there was no conclusive evidence the contact occurred outside the area and so the onfield decision stood.

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Liverpool only had themselves to blame for the situation, with Van Dijk carelessly losing possession on the halfway line via an unnecessary flick and Robertson committing to the tackle when Dibling was being forced wide.

Kelleher nearly made up for it by saving the penalty from Armstrong, but the forward reacted quickest to make it 1-1 by netting the rebound.

What did Arne Slot say?

“We are really happy, especially because 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.

“We always know we can trust Mo if things are difficult for us because after we went 2-1 down, I didn’t really feel that was the moment we should score. It was a fantastic pass from Ryan Gravenberch, and the timing of the run and how Mo finished it was special. That helps you back in the game and we needed that goal to play the last 25 minutes we played because, for me, it was then a matter of time before we scored the third goal.

“The first goal we scored was from them playing out from the back. That didn’t happen a lot for them today and it has happened a lot for them in other games because I showed the players yesterday how many times Southampton can play through the press. But that part of our game was good, we were aggressive without the ball.”

Harder work than you wanted it to be ahead of Real Madrid?

“This league asks a lot from every player, every weekend. If you then play in Europe, then that isn’t easy. Only a few teams have shown they can do this. Liverpool have shown it in the past for many seasons, but the last two years were difficult. But that is also why many teams in England have such a big squad because the top clubs have quite a bit of money and can make a bigger squad than other teams in other countries.”

On going eight points clear?

“We know what he have to put into it to get these leads and these wins. There were only maybe one or two games for us that were wins by a big margin. These players have been longer in the Premier League than I have, but even later on in the season, last season, Arsenal led by eight points and Manchester City still came back. You know if you face Arsenal, City, Chelsea and all these other teams that they are all able to win so many games in a row. It’s nice to have this position but we are not getting carried away.”