Slick Reds ensure Slot can rest easy as they keep Cup hopes alive

IF an apparently restless Arne Slot admitted to sleepless nights before this FA Cup visit from Brighton, the Liverpool boss could at least rest easy for the remainder of his weekend.

- By PAUL GORST

And with a full week now to strategise for the visit to Nottingham Forest next Sunday, he has a rare luxury of a one-game week as the quest for Champions League qualification returns to centre stage.

Definitive statements about 'turning a corner' have often come back to bite this term, but a hugely positive few days against Sunderland on Wednesday and now the Seagulls - might just be enough to see some whisper it quietly once more.

A 3-0 triumph here at Anfield was secured in ultimately routine fashion as goals from Curtis Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah put paid to Fabian Hurzeler's hopes of lifting the gloom around his club just now.

The hosts were even able to have two ruled out in either half for Cody Gakpo and teenage winger Rio Ngumoha and a fifth-round place never really looked in doubt.

Having seen the right-back spot apparently become cursed this season, Slot's latest incumbent, Jones, went some way towards redressing the imbalance with the opening goal on his first start of the campaign in the backline.