Liverpool scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season to date, keeping themselves in the driving seat thereafter as an eagerly anticipated return occurred.
Liverpool 2-0 Brighton
Premier League (16) | Anfield
December 13, 2025
Goals: Ekitike 1′, 60′
1. Salah sideshow is over
Mohamed Salah still wants Liverpool and Liverpool very much want Salah. The past week has been full of hot air and irritating white noise, the bottom line is Salah wants Liverpool to be back on top and he wants to be the main man again.
Is it possible? Quite probably, on both counts. It’s clear to see his ego has taken a bit of a battering with the struggles in the new system, with new big name personnel.
But Salah – for all his big words and cryptic declarations – does not want to turn his back on the Reds after just being crowned a Premier League champion again. A move to Saudi Arabia isn’t going anywhere, it’s there for whenever he wants it.
His re-introduction here, much earlier than anyone anticipated due to the knock to Joe Gomez, signalled what most people expected; a determined Salah and an adoring Anfield, willing him back to his best.
Salah looked at home on the flank, energetic and with a point to prove. The fact that Arne Slot turned to him so rapidly when the formation was tweaked speaks volumes.
The manager needs a high octane Salah in his team delivering the goods, and for the past month or so he simply had not had that. Dropping the Egyptian King was more than justified, and it was reassuring here to see things looking very much back to business today at Anfield.
He ran hard, looked like he was feeding off the crowd and wasting little time getting an assist to his name. He should have scored too, and his work rate to win back the ball and hammer into the area to be on the receiving end of Federico Chiesa‘s superb through-ball was invigorating.
Everybody wants the same thing here – a return to success and victory after victory. He may have spat his dummy, but Salah’s heart has always been in the right place. This manner of performance from the Egyptian King was everything both he and Liverpool needed after a turbulent week.
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2. Full-back plan is emerging
There is an argument that Liverpool have looked almost void of identity for large swathes of this season, and it would be difficult to disagree. But look closely enough and there does appear to be numerous indictors as to the direction Liverpool are hoping to go.
This revolves predominantly around the full-back positions, which makes perfect sense given how much money was invested in these positions during the summer.
Milos Kerkez spent the final few minutes of this match riddled with cramp down both legs, with Virgil van Dijk trying to press some circulation into his flagging muscles. It was evidence enough, if needed, of how much bombing up and down the flanks the summer signing had been doing.
Take a freeze-frame of any attacking moment of this match and you’ll notice something very apparent – both full-backs were pushed incredibly high. It’s been clear that this has been the plan all season, though thus far it really has not worked due to the porous gaps existing within the midfield.
Now, however, the new plan is forming. The full-backs are urged to plough on and all but sit on the shoulders of the Liverpool forwards, while midfielders in the diamond formation tuck back beyond their marauding team-mate.
Both Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai played as much at full-back as Kerkez and Gomez today, with Szoboszlai permanently taking over for the latter following his early exit.
It works – it gives Liverpool ample chances at triggering an overload in the final third, while also remaining compact to a counter attack, or robust enough to deny oppositions playing out methodically from the back. The signs are positive, and it looks like an understanding is finally in place.
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3. Florian Wirtz finds a home
Earlier in the season Florian Wirtz was finding his feet and adapting to a new league while trying to apply his vast talents to Liverpool’s already existing ethos, but now we’re seeing him really flexing his muscles in something of a new berth, and it’s paying dividends.
All too often now we’re watching another match and hearing the same: ‘That’s the best run out Wirtz has had in a Liverpool shirt.’ The German superstar is looking better and better, and it feels like things are starting to make sense within the set-up for him now.
The Liverpool hierarchy have been acutely aware that the direction of style and play is going to be tweaked and adapted heading into the new era, but this season Slot and his coaching staff have perhaps been guilty of trying to stick a little too rigidly to the old ways – while asking the new signings to play their own game.
It’s been a strange contrast and often unworkable.
Now, Wirtz looks very much at home playing within a dynamic front three, dovetailing behind Hugo Ekitike and using the flying overlapping runs of Kerkez as a handy foil. He’s getting a strong awareness of those around him and their respective strengths, and it feels like a matter of time before he becomes the main man for the Reds.
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4. Versatility will save Liverpool’s season
We’re getting to that stage in the campaign where the arduous workload begins to bite everyone, no team is immune. Injuries and fatigue will soon hit across the league, and the knocks and twinges will pile up.
Last season Slot and Co. were relatively blessed, given the injury room was far from busy. Now, less so, but Liverpool have numerous players who can fill in across a variety of positions.
Curtis Jones can expect to have plenty of game time as we head through the festive period, while the return of the multi-functional Wataru Endo will be a god send. Versatility across the board can win football matches and prevent the needless frittering of points.
While other teams may soon start to struggle as players drop off and require time on the sidelines, it feels like Liverpool can prosper.
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5. Slot stumbles upon new set-up
Black and white stats and the league table do not lie, but Liverpool have not been as bad this season as their overall haul suggests.
Sure, some matches have been laughably wayward, but as a collective Liverpool still find themselves just behind Man City and Arsenal in criteria like big chances created, passes in the final third etc.
Regardless, Liverpool have been falling short and it is the total zapping of confidence that comes as a byproduct which has really killed off Slot’s men.
Now, the manager appears to have stumbled upon a means of getting everyone in the XI in an interchangeable system, deploying a diamond midfield. It keeps the channels full, while enabling Liverpool to still move possession quickly and efficiently.
Against Brighton, it felt like a much more controlled offering, similar to last season.
Liverpool had confidence and they made it pay. The final whistle sounded with Brighton having the greater xG of the two sides, but the Reds emerged on top because they made the most of their opportunities, remained compact and – for once – rode a wave of confidence in order to assert an air of dominance.
For Slot right now, anything which represents an easily repeatable game plan that can secure all three points is vital.