Premier League<\/a> this season, at 46 seconds, was therefore an ideal platform for a team regaining stability. The benefits of Ekitik\u00e9\u2019s emphatic early strike exceeded the mere pattern of a game. A hungry opening combined with a costly error by Yankuba Minteh enabled the focus to shift away from Salah on the bench and on to the pitch.<\/p>\nHugo Ekitik\u00e9 strikes early for Liverpool, scoring the fastest goal in the Premier League this season after 46 seconds. Photograph: Liverpool FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Minteh appeared to have extinguished Liverpool\u2019s first attack when taking the ball off Curtis Jones, who was making his 200th appearance for his boyhood club. With time and space, the Brighton winger swept a clearance across his penalty area to Joe Gomez, whose brave first-time header dropped to Ekitik\u00e9. The France international controlled and did well to keep a thunderous shot just under the crossbar.<\/p>\n
Minteh was not spared the wrath of his teammates, but, in fairness to the Gambia international, he did more than anyone else in a Brighton shirt to produce a first-half equaliser. The winger beat Alisson with a daisy-cutter that sailed just wide of the far post. He also put Diego G\u00f3mez through with a superb pass, but Alisson was out quickly to block the shot.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideMatch factsShow![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Mo Salah (above left, congratulating Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 on scoring from his corner) has 277 goal involvements for Liverpool in the Premier League (188 goals, 89 assists) \u2013 the outright record by a player for a single club in the competition, overtaking Wayne Rooney’s 276 for Manchester United (183 goals, 93 assists).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Salah also has 151 goal involvements in 155 Premier League appearances at Anfield (107 goals, 44 assists) \u2013 the joint-most by any player at a single stadium, level with Thierry Henry at Highbury (114 goals, 37 assists) and Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford (101 goals, 50 assists).<\/p>\n
\u2022 Virgil van Dijk made his 250th Premier League appearance for Liverpool in this game \u2013 all of which have been as a starter. He is one of only two outfielders to play 250+ times for a side in the competition without any appearances as a substitute, along with Des Walker for Sheffield Wednesday (264).<\/p>\n
Photograph: Phil Noble\/REUTERS<\/p>\n
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Brighton had plenty of joy playing through Liverpool\u2019s packed midfield, but the hosts carved out the clearer openings. Joe Gomez and Florian Wirtz, a vibrant presence, set up Ekitik\u00e9 for shots he sent over and wide.<\/p>\n
When the unfortunate Joe Gomez went down injured, Slot instructed Salah to strip off. It was no surprise to see Salah named among the Liverpool substitutes again after his recall \u2013 results had improved without him \u2013 but his early introduction could be seen as a show of faith from Slot before the striker departs for Afcon on Monday.<\/p>\n
Salah is introduced from the bench in the 26th minute for the injured Joe Gomez. Photograph: Liverpool FC\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Salah entered to a rapturous reception and responded with an energetic and unselfish display. He almost created a goal for Alexis Mac Allister with his first touch and claimed a third Premier League assist of the season to quell Brighton\u2019s attempted second-half comeback. Salah won a corner when Verbruggen spilled his shot from the edge of the penalty area. The 33-year-old took it and, while the Kop were singing Salah\u2019s name, Ekitik\u00e9 rose unmarked at the back post to head home. Salah pointed to the Kop when jogging over to join the celebrations.<\/p>\n
Brighton should have been level before Liverpool\u2019s second. Diego G\u00f3mez struck a post when presented with a glorious chance from Mats Wieffer\u2019s cross while Brajan Gruda and the substitute Kaoru Mitoma also missed clear openings.<\/p>\n
Liverpool squandered several on the counterattack, too. At least Salah was there to miss them. That phrase carried more significance than it usually would.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were tears in Mohamed Salah\u2019s eyes when he applauded the Kop after the final whistle and his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-346217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}