ON a night of chaos and confusion at Anfield, it was Mo Salah who gave Liverpool the clarity of a three-point lead at the Premier League summit.
Now Jurgen Klopp must keep the Reds on top of the pile while his Egyptian magician makes a disappearing act to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Salah scored twice and set up two more, having been denied from the penalty spot by Newcastle’s outstanding keeper Martin Dubravka in the first half.
His opener, which set up a manic six-goal second half, was his 150th goal for the club.
How the league leaders will miss him when he heads off to the Ivory Coast, in search of international honours – missing up to seven club matches.
Newcastle’s visits to Anfield are usually a recipe for bedlam and this was no exception – two disallowed goals in the first half adding to the mayhem.
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But after peppering Dubravka’s goal for so long, Liverpool began 2024 with a flourish.
They have lost just once in 30 Premier League games – and that sole setback was a highway robbery courtesy of VAR at Tottenham.
Eddie Howe’s Toon, meanwhile, have lost seven times in eight matches in all competitions and have plummeted out of Champions League contention.
The Magpies haven’t won away in the Premier League since September and they haven’t won at Anfield in three decades.
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This is not what Howe’s Saudi paymasters signed up for.
Buoyed by Arsenal’s festive nosedive, and against out-of-form opposition, Liverpool knew this was a night to seize the initiative.
And they were soon at their visitors’ throats, Trent Alexander-Arnold drilling a shot which was deflected wide and Darwin Nunez seeing a scuffed shot saved from Dubravka.
Liverpool were swarming all over the Magpies in the frantic tempo which is the trademark of a Klopp team.
And twice in quick succession, the Reds thought they had made the breakthrough.
First, Curtis Jones scalpelled open the Toon defence to release Nunez, who slipped a pass to Luis Diaz to fire past Dubravka.
Yet linesman Gary Beswick correctly flagged Nunez narrowly offside – VAR catching up with the naked eye several minutes later.
Unperturbed, Klopp’s side launched another attack, Diaz darting into the box and being upended by Sven Botman.
Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot but Salah snatched at his spot-kick, which was too close to Dubravka, who saved.
From the rebound, Alexander-Arnold skied a close-range shot and the Magpies were off the hook again.
It was the fourth time Salah had missed from the spot in ten attempts – so perhaps one disguised blessing of the Egyptian’s absence is that Klopp can choose a more trusty penalty taker.
Next, it was Nunez’s chance to be wasteful, out-muscling Botman as he went for a long punt but thwarted by Dubravka, who stuck out a leg to save his shot, then denied the Uruguayan again from the rebound.
Just when it felt Howe’s men were being smothered into submission, they broke upfield and found the net – only to be frustrated by another offside flag.
Dan Burn nodded home a Lewis Miley cross but linesman Adam Nunn scrubbed it out for a razor-thin offside against Alexander Isak in the build-up.
Alexander-Arnold, with extreme audacity, then crashed a shot against the far post from the narrowest of angles – and the shot count read 18-1 in Liverpool’s favour, the hosts rattling up the highest number of goal attempts by any team in the first half of a Premier League match this season.
Yet none had counted and by half-time, Klopp and side began to lose their cool – Diaz booked for dissent after Joelinton twice avoided entries into Taylor’s book, while Klopp, typically, was doing his conkers at fourth official Andy Madley.
Still, within four minutes of the restart all of that frustration subsided as Salah struck.
Nunez drove forward and fed Diaz who angled a pass back to the Uruguayan, who squared unselfishly for Salah to stroke home his landmark goal.
Dubravka was soon back to denying Nunez, smothering at point-black range after a delicious volleyed centre from Salah and then pushing the Uruguayan’s powerful shot wide.
Nobody saw a Newcastle equaliser coming but that’s exactly what we got.
Anthony Gordon played a cute through-ball down the left flank and with Van Dijk playing him onside, Isak latched on and tucked it past Alisson into the far corner.
Dubravka beat away a Diaz shot, then Nunez screwed a header wide from six yards out and promptly made way for Cody Gakpo, as part of a triple change from Klopp.
Salah had a curler pushed away by Dubravka, who soon blocked a fierce Gakpo drive.
But inevitably, the Slovak was eventually beaten again, Diogo Jota driving forward and collecting a sweet return pass for Salah before he squared for Jones to tap home.
Soon it was 3-1, a gorgeous pass from Salah with the outside of his boot, allowing Gakpo a simple finish – only for Botman to crash home a header from a Sean Longstaff corner to keep it bubbling.
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Jota rounded Dubravka and dived horribly, fooling Taylor and his VAR, allowing Salah to fire home his second from the spot.
Follow how the action unfolded in our live blog below…
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
