Two-faced Liverpool beat Wolverhampton and hold off Arsenal
An imperial Cunha is not enough to prevent the 'reds' from returning to winning ways
Liverpool won 2-1 at Anfield against Wolverhampton in a match where the ‘Reds’ showed their best and their worst versions. The best player in the match was Cunha, who showed enough talent to make the jump to a bigger club. The good work of the Brazilian was not enough to prevent Liverpool from consolidating the lead of the Premier League. They are eight points ahead of Arsenal, second in the table. Luis DÃaz and Salah are Liverpool’s unlimited partnership.
The first half was a piece of cake for the ‘Pool‘. Everything was going well for the team managed by Arne Slot, who is having a great season, despite the last two negative results against Plymouth and Everton. The Colombian is the smartest in the class. He scored the first goal by beating the defense after a bad clearance by Toti Gomes in the area following a failed pass from Salah to Jota.
Salah scored the second goal from the penalty spot after a serious error by Agbadou when he did not cut off a through ball to Luis DÃaz, which led to the penalty. The ball going out of play is one of Wolverhampton’s biggest dramas this season. The Egyptian has scored 101 goals at Anfield in the Premier League. With today’s goal, he has 23 goals in the English championship. He is the top scorer ahead of Haaland, who did not score yesterday but has 19 goals, four less than Salah.
The second half was very different. What seemed like a peaceful afternoon at Anfield almost turned into a nightmare, as the ghosts of last Wednesday returned with Tarkowski’s goal in the 97th minute. For the first time since records began (2003-2004 season), Liverpool finished with zero shots on goal in a half. This is a significant figure that shows the poor second half of the Premier League leaders.
In this comparison, we can see Wolverhampton’s clear dominance in the second half, which did not back down after the break. Liverpool suffered more than expected in this second half. The ‘Wolves’ won both in possession and in total shots. A remarkable fact when dealing with an imposing venue such as Anfield.
I changed Konaté at half-time for fear of him being sent off.
Arne Slot did not want to risk Konaté being shown a second yellow card so he substituted him after the break. He confirmed this in the post-match press conference: “Yes, I took him off for that,” he said bluntly. “I saw that they gave him the first yellow card, which for me was dubious… if they had given him the second one for a push on the shoulder, he would have been sent off with two dubious yellow cards.”
Before Wolves’ flurry of chances, Salah had a goal ruled out in the 50th minute for offside. VAR intervened shortly afterward to disallow a penalty where Diogo Jota had dived. Cunha scored a left-footed goal from outside the area . Liverpool struggled but came away with the win and kept Arsenal at bay in the title race.