Goals from Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo saw Liverpool defeat rivals Everton 2-0 at Anfield on Monday night to spark some hope for the remainder of their Premier League season.
Salah has been a shadow of his usual self this year, and the same can be said for a lot of his teammates, but he stood up to the challenge of this fierce derby match to score on his 200th Premier League appearance.
Liverpool’s recent history has been spearheaded by the exciting Egyptian as he cemented himself as one of the best attackers in Europe because of his devastating impact for Jurgen Klopp’s side. His biggest contributions have been his goals which have been integral to the Reds’ successes in recent years.
That is why one of the biggest signs of Liverpool’s stagnation in 2022-23 has been seen through Salah not being his prolific self, and that has really hurt them and completely changed the objectives of their season.
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Coming off the back of playing every single competitive game to them last term and the chance of an immortalising quadruple, Liverpool look to have been suffering from exhaustion this year as their intensity hasn’t been quite up to the high standards Klopp has set the squad over the years.
Against Everton, we saw the intensity that developed Liverpool into one of Europe’s deadliest forces and the quick break which saw Salah open the scoring at Anfield was more like the team we’ve been accustomed to watching under Klopp. It was a wonderful combination between Salah and Darwin Nunez for the opener, with the latter using his pace to leave the Toffees in a sticky situation. He played an inviting ball across to Salah who used his instincts to catch Jordan Pickford out with a first-time finish. Not only did he score on his 200th Premier League appearance, but it was also his 100th Premier League goal involvement at Anfield (71 goals, 29 assists).
The 30-year-old forward ended his five-game league streak without a goal, while also scoring his team’s first goal in the league for 346 minutes, and what a fixture to do it in. The mood has always been positive at Liverpool when they have been consistently getting results and those consistent results usually had Salah on the scoresheet so that goal will be as much of a boost to the team as it is for him. It was his eighth of the season in the top-flight and the supporters will be hoping that he can supply a few more before the season ends because they still have a mountain to climb to finish in the top four as they are still nine points adrift.
Salah’s lowest season-ending goal tally in the Premier League has been 19, so he has his work cut out to at least equal that mark but having just helped secure his side’s first league victory in five matches, he will be thinking that he has rediscovered his rhythm to unlock the best version of himself in the weeks to come.The Merseyside derby was expected to be a tougher test for the hosts than it was for Everton but with the way that the team were set up and applied themselves, it was a really difficult evening for Sean Dyche’s side instead. This was largely down to the strong midfield performance of teenager Stefan Bajcetic, who was not fazed by the physical demands of the game as he broke up play brilliantly.
The age old saying is that form goes out the window for derby matches and that was certainly the case for Liverpool. Not once did they look like a side that had not won in their last four league outings. They came out with a point to prove and there’s always the added motivation of a derby match, and delivered a performance that can offer them hope for the final months of the campaign.
It was great for them to see Salah on the scoresheet but the fans would have been more happy to see new boy Cody Gakpo finally open his account for the club as he wrapped the game up early in the second half. From the way he celebrated you could see how relieved he was to get his first goal for the club and that will do wonders for his confidence.
Liverpool’s torrid run in the league is at an end and now they have to channel this level of performance in the fixtures that are to come and maybe they will have a chance to rescue their season.
