Liverpool ended a four-game losing streak in the Premier League as Mohamed Salah scored his 250th goal for the club in a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday.
Salah pounced on an error by Emiliano Martinez to open the scoring before Ryan Gravenberch’s deflected effort secured a long-awaited victory that lifts the defending champions up to third in the table. Liverpool boss Arne Slot’s decision to make wholesale changes for Wednesday’s 3-0 League Cup exit to Crystal Palace only piled even more pressure on his returning stars to get back to winning ways after six defeats in seven games in all competitions.
Yet they nearly paid for another slow start. Liverpool had conceded inside the first 15 minutes of all their four consecutive Premier League defeats and were inches away from doing so again when Morgan Rogers blasted a shot off the post from outside the box. Giorgi Mamardashvili has struggled to fill the void left by the injured Alisson Becker in recent weeks but the Georgian goalkeeper made a stunning stop moments later to turn Maty Cash’s deflected effort onto the post.
Villa were cutting through Liverpool’s press with ease in the early stages, but soon became architects of their own downfall in playing out from the back.
The visitors were handed a let off when Dominik Szoboszlai robbed Pau Torres but fired meekly into the arms of Martinez with just the goalkeeper to beat.
Hugo Ekitike did power a header past the Argentine only for a VAR review to show the Frenchman was clearly offside from Szoboszlai’s cross.
However, Villa did not heed their warning as a terrible error from Martinez teed up Salah to roll his landmark goal into an unguarded net just before half-time. The Egyptian’s struggles have played a major part in the Reds’ difficult start to the season, but he now has five goals in this campaign and sits behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt as the third top goalscorer in the club’s history.
The goal also ended Liverpool’s seven-game run of conceding first and their confidence began to flow back in a dominant second-half showing.
Villa had won their last four league games, including notable scalps against Tottenham and Manchester City, to begin the day level on points with Liverpool.
However, Unai Emery’s men struggled to live with a fired-up Liverpool after the break.
Gravenberch was badly missed due to an ankle injury in last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at Brentford. The Dutch midfielder had fortune on his side for Liverpool’s second goal when he surged onto Alexis Mac Allister’s pass before his strike deceived Martinez thanks to a deflection off Pau Torres. A first clean sheet in 11 games rounded off a perfect start to a big week for Slot’s men. Real Madrid visit Anfield in the Champions League on Tuesday before a visit to Manchester City next weekend.
A disastrous run has left Liverpool with a mountain to climb if they are to reel in Arsenal to defend their title. But cutting the gap to the Gunners back to seven points is an important first step to hauling themselves back into the title race.