Liverpool beat Huddersfield 5-0 on Friday night to return to the top of the Premier League. Aside from the lack of a goal from the returning Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, it couldn’t have gone much better.
With Huddersfield’s poor scoring record, the three points were arguably in the bag after just 15 seconds. Liverpool’s first pass of the match proved to be an assist, as Mohamed Salah played in Naby Keita to score the Reds’ fastest ever Premier League goal. According to LFC History, it was their second fastest ever.
It also meant Keita netted his third goal in his last five appearances, and the former Leipzig man is finally displaying the form Kopites had hoped to enjoy all season. There will be high hopes for Keita in 2019/20.
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There appears to be two competitions going on within this Liverpool team – Salah and Sadio Mané for goals, Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold for assists. All four players were heavily involved against the Terriers.
Both forwards scored either side of the half-time interval. Sadio Mané bagged a brace of headers, thanks to fine deliveries from Robertson and Jordan Henderson. The Senegalese star may not be the tallest, but he now has five league goals with his head in 2018/19, which can only be bettered by Aleksandar Mitrovic and Chris Wood, who each have six.
The strikes also took Liverpool to 16 headed goals for the league campaign. That’s both the most in the division in 2018/19, and now the most by the Reds in any of the last 12 seasons.
Mané has scored an incredible 11 goals in the last nine league games at Anfield, with the recent victory against Tottenham the only match in the sequence where he didn’t find the net.
As for Salah, his goals were assisted by Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. By netting twice in his 100th appearance for the club, the Egyptian king moved on to 69 goals, the most by any Liverpool player in their first ton of games in the famous red shirt.
Salah also notched a total of eight shots, the most he has had in any league game for any club over the past five seasons, and he created four chances too.
Salah’s second goal ensured Robertson equalled the Premier League record for most assists by a defender in a single season, with 11. As he now shares the top spot with two Evertonians – Andy Hinchcliffe and Leighton Baines – it would be great if he can find one more before the end of 2018/19.
Trent may be two assists behind his Scottish counterpart, both in the league and in total, but he continued his fine recent run by setting up a goal for the fifth time in his last six appearances.
With Henderson picking up his fourth assist since he changed position at Southampton, it’s clear that creativity is flowing throughout the Liverpool team at present. The Reds had six clear-cut chances in this game, which matches their Premier League best for this campaign.
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All six were directly created – as in one player passed to another who then had a shot – which wasn’t the case on the other occasion when they had six, against Burnley at Anfield earlier this season.
Meanwhile, Mané and Salah hit the 20 league goal marker during this match, with the latter just ahead on 21.
It’s only the fourth time in the Premier League era that a club has had two players who have scored at least 20 goals.
For this remarkable Liverpool side, the records continue to tumble. They have now amassed 50 points at Anfield for the first time in the Premier League. They have won 10 games in a row in all competitions for the first time in 13 years.
Most impressively of all, they have guaranteed they will end the season with the highest points-per-game average in the club’s top flight history, whatever happens in the final two games, and if three points are awarded for a win in all previous seasons.
It may not prove to be enough to win the league, but the current crop of Reds are writing their names high into the history of the club regardless.
