Salah double sees off Southampton and stretches Liverpool’s lead to eight points

For a moment, Mohamed Salah’s shirt was gone with the wind, resting somewhere on the edge of the Southampton box. He had whipped it off en route to celebrate his second goal, from the penalty spot, to open up an eight-point lead at the summit of the Premier League, in front of the visiting Liverpool supporters going berserk in a pocket of this stadium. Then Luis Díaz retrieved Salah’s No 11.

On the face of it, at kick-off this was a mismatch between the teams top and bottom of the division but Liverpool, who opened the scoring through Dominik Szoboszlai, trailed to goals by Adam Armstrong and Mateus Fernandes. But Salah levelled from open play, scored from the penalty spot and then hit a post late on to leave Arne Slot’s side admiring the view from up high.

There were plenty of positives for Russell Martin but ultimately another dispiriting defeat to go with them. He has been wrestling to find a winning formula to avert an immediate return to the Championship and made five changes, handing 6ft 7in striker Paul Onuachu his first league start in 18 months, since the day Saints were relegated last year, while Ryan Fraser was given the daunting task of shackling Salah from left wing-back. Alex McCarthy replaced the injured Aaron Ramsdale in goal. The accusation levelled at Martin since he began life in the dugout at MK Dons in League One has been his teams’ tendency to overplay and the slapstick if not comical manner of Liverpool’s goal on the half-hour only served to add another log on the raging fire of debate.

McCarthy rolled the ball to Mateus Fernandes and pointed upfield, seemingly not accounting for the traffic on the midfielder’s radar. Fernandes, hounded by Curtis Jones, passed the ball to Flynn Downes standing on the Saints’ goalline. Downes panicked in possession and hurried a half-baked clearance straight to Szoboszlai, who took a touch to compose himself before lining up a majestic finish. Martin shook his head and winced after the Hungarian caressed his unerring left-foot shot in off a post. Downes almost immediately made amends, drawing a fine save from Caoimhín Kelleher.

Onuachu had been a handful, earning olés from the home support, and Liverpool will have welcomed his premature exit with a hamstring problem after colliding with Cody Gakpo six minutes into the second half. The only problem for Liverpool was that Southampton still had Tyler Dibling on the pitch. The 18-year-old, who made his England Under-21s debut last week, has been Saints’ beacon of light during a draining few months. He excelled on his Premier League debut against Manchester United in September, his direct running causing havoc and he won a penalty which Cameron Archer failed to convert. Dibling won another spot-kick here, driving forward after seizing on a rare lapse by Virgil van Dijk and drawing a crunch from Andy Robertson and the referee, Samuel Barrott, pointed to the spot. After the video assistant referee, Michael Oliver, in a hoodie at Stockley Park, concluded the foul occurred on the edge of the 18-yard box, Armstrong stepped up. His penalty was poor, allowing a diving Kelleher to repel his effort, but the striker sent the rebound through the goalkeeper’s legs.

Mateus Fernandes (in red) gives Southampton the lead against Liverpool. Photograph: Paul Childs/Action Images/Reuters

Dibling was at the thrust of every Saints attack and the catalyst for the superb counterattack that culminated in Kelleher fishing the ball out of his net 11 minutes after the interval. A move that inadvertently began with McCarthy fumbling a Liverpool corner ended with Fernandes neatly side-footing home Armstrong’s cross. Fraser had released Dibling, who on the touchline exquisitely checked back on himself to eliminate Szoboszlai. Dibling then freed Armstrong, who lured three dark green shirts with him, and then kept his cool to locate Fernandes, who calmly did the rest.

Southampton were enterprising going forward but never looked secure at the back. Liverpool’s equaliser was another sickener from Martin’s point of view. Ryan Gravenberch sent a routine pass down the right channel over the top of Kyle Walker-Peters and McCarthy rushed from his goal to meet it. By the time it dawned on McCarthy that it may not have been the best move, it was too late as Salah prodded the ball past him and into a gaping net with his first touch. McCarthy helped Southampton survive a few more hairy episodes but then the substitute Yuki Sugawara gifted the visitors another chance to strike, handling Salah’s cross. The man himself buried the spot-kick.