Kop sings for scurrying Salah as he helps Reds win

First came the serenade to Mohamed Salah and then, seconds later, the chorus of Arne Slot's name.

- RICHARD JOLLY

Anfield did not need to choose between Liverpool's greatest player of the last decade and title-winning manager. They could have both. For one more afternoon. Perhaps for much longer.

Seven days after Salah had claimed they had no relationship any more, it was repaired sufficiently to allow his return. Slot suggested their problems are in the past. "For me there is no issue to resolve," he said. "For me, he is the same as any other player." Which was not the case when he was a man apart, banished from the squad who travelled to Milan. But a rapprochement meant Liverpool could celebrate a happy ending to a fraught week.

Brighton were beaten, Liverpool's unbeaten run without Salah starting stretching to five games. Hugo Ekitike scored a double for a second successive Saturday but it seems his lot in life is to be forever overshadowed. So he was again; not by Salah's words after the game but by his presence in it.

A few days after it seemed he may have played his last game for Liverpool, he played his next. It assumed a far greater importance than merely being his last before he heads off to the African Cup of Nations. “It was an easy decision to put him in the squad,” said Slot. “Actions speak louder than what has been said and he was in the squad again and when I had to make my first substitution, I brought him.”