“Premier League”: Salah scores and assists as Liverpool tops the table

Liverpool maintained its lead at the top by defeating visitors Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday in the eighth round of the Premier League, which also saw Manchester City, the reigning champions, snatch a late victory over Wolverhampton with the same score.

Liverpool now has 21 points at the top of the table, one point ahead of Manchester City, who have won the league for the past four seasons. Arsenal, who suffered their first defeat of the season to Bournemouth 2-0 on Saturday, is in third place with 17 points.

This is only the third time Liverpool has won 10 out of its first 11 matches across all competitions since the start of this season, after achieving the same in the 1960-1961 and 1990-1991 seasons.

Liverpool’s coach, Arne Slot, did not include any of his South American players in the starting lineup due to their late return from international duty. This meant that the Argentine Alexis Mac Allister, the Colombian Luis Diaz, and the Uruguayan Darwin Núñez started on the bench (the latter joined after 30 minutes due to an injury to Diogo Jota).

On the other hand, Chelsea missed their left-back, Spanish player Marc Cucurella, due to an accumulation of yellow cards. Their lineup did, however, see the return of their captain Reece James, who had been sidelined for 10 months due to injury.

Chelsea was the better side in the first 20 minutes, but without creating real danger for Liverpool’s Irish goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher, until the referee awarded a penalty to Liverpool for a foul by Levi Colwill on Jota inside the box, which was successfully converted by Egyptian star Mohamed Salah (29th minute). This was Salah’s fifth goal in the league this season.

Liverpool scored a second goal through Dutch forward Cody Gakpo, but it was ruled out for offside.

In the dying seconds of the first half, the referee awarded a second penalty following a clash between Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and Curtis Jones, but the decision was overturned after reviewing the VAR.

Chelsea’s best chance of the first half came when Cole Palmer struck a powerful left-footed shot that narrowly sailed over the crossbar.

Chelsea equalized early in the second half when Senegalese striker Nicolas Jackson received a brilliant through ball from Ecuadorian Moisés Caicedo and slotted it past the Liverpool goalkeeper (48th minute). This was Jackson’s fifth goal in his last seven Premier League matches.

However, Chelsea didn’t enjoy the equalizer for long, as Liverpool regained the lead when Salah provided a precise pass to Curtis Jones, who tapped it into the net (52nd minute).

The score remained unchanged despite efforts from both teams in the final half-hour.