Liverpool put all their recent struggles aside with a comfortable 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday night.
Arne Slott’s Reds are still seven points behind Arsenal at the top of the Premier League tree, and while four successive defeats didn’t necessarily help their cause, they were still in dire need of a win and secured points against Unai Emery’s challengers in easy fashion.
From a personal perspective, Mohamed Salah will also have been relieved to see Slott & Company back within striking distance last night with their first league win since September’s hotly contested Merseyside derby.
Mo Salah’s monumental shot against Aston Villa
All in all, it was a landmark night for the Egyptian, who played against the visitors from the West Midlands.
Despite a shaky start to the season by his lofty standards, Salah managed to score the 250th Premier League goal of his illustrious career on Saturday night, capitalizing on Emiliano Martinez’s mistake at the back to score an easy first-half goal.
This put the reigning champions on course for a solid three points, with Salah not only adding his name to the Premier League record books, but also looking in good spirits throughout.
The 33-year-old kept Lucas Digne on his toes throughout and the Liverpool veteran managed to reverse his usual ferocious streak with just five successful dribbles.
In addition, Salah showed plenty of energy and vitality when fighting duels, winning seven duels on the ground.
At the end of the contest, Salah would not only have stolen most of the attention with his milestone goal, but he would have been satisfied with his overall performance.
Still, there is a fresher figure in Slott’s ranks who looks to be shaping up to be a new version of the Dutch Reds legend, in that he will be an integral part of the team sheet when he’s on form.
New slot player
Salah is currently 33 years old, so his time as a regular for Liverpool week in and week out could soon be coming to an end.
Unfortunately, he has wobbled on points this season as well, scoring just four goals in the Premier League, but his encouraging performance against Villa has ensured he remains in that position for good, showing that there is still life in the aging winger’s legs at the moment.
It cannot be underestimated how important Salah has been to Liverpool over the years, having consistently provided moments of magic, but Slott may well find himself with a new Salah-type figure in his ranks in Ryan Gravenbirch, who is, as ex-Reds midfielder Steve McManaman labeled Salah, “indispensable” whenever he fits into Liverpool’s starting XI.
Journalist Henry Winter also said after securing the three points that the former Ajax sensation was “very important” to how Liverpool do, with Slott cursing the talisman’s recent injury luck before returning to the first-team against Villa, but Liverpool trailed worryingly 3-2 away to Brentford without Graven Birch in the squad.
But with Grafenberch back in the squad on Saturday night, Liverpool were in no danger of handing Villa the three points. The standout No. 38 had already scored his third goal of the season in the Premier League – showcasing his Salah-like ability to make killer decisions – and this kind of deflection put Martinez on the wrong foot early in the second half.
Graben-Birch also led by example, winning six duels and two tackles, giving Liverpool some much-needed grit in midfield and maintaining an 88% passing accuracy in a 2-0 win.
Grabenberch’s PL numbers this season | |
|---|---|
Statistics – per 90 minutes* | graben birch |
games played | 8 |
the game has started | 8 |
Number of points scored | 3 |
assist | 1 |
touch | 74.4 |
exact path | 53.5 (88%) |
Tackle* | 2.0 |
Ball recovery rate* | 3.6 |
Total Win Duels* | 5.3 |
Statistics by Sofa Score | |
As you can see from the table above, the 23-year-old has been equal parts skill and attrition over the season so far, with Salah scoring an impressive 29 goals in the Premier League last season, averaging 3.3 successful duels per game, and winning a fair number of duels.
The 8/10 midfield star still has a long way to go before he is seen in the same shining light as Salah, who has become a top-flight great at Anfield, as given his post-match rating by journalist Ian Doyle.
But if he continues on his current trajectory – one analyst even described him as “world class” for his balanced performance against Villa – he will be fondly remembered as a future Liverpool Hall of Famer, long after Salah’s esteemed playing days have passed.
