Liverpool 3-0 Southampton player ratings, stats and reaction: Mohamed Salah magic has Reds fans trolling Chelsea

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Liverpool cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win over Southampton in today’s Premier League encounter at Anfield, with Mohamed Salah stealing the show.

The Egypt international scored twice in the first half to fire himself top of the Premier League scoring charts, before Philippe Coutinho added a third in the second half.

Man of the match

It’s a pretty easy one here, but Salah gets the award for another breathtaking display to show he’s surely one of the signings of the summer.

Mohamed Salah is having a tremendous season for Liverpool

Given some of the eye-watering transfer fees we saw this summer, BBC Sport‘s claim that Liverpool paid Roma just £34million for Salah shows that bargains can still be found at this level.

With nine league goals already, Salah is showing himself to be just the goal poacher Liverpool needed, but with the added bonus of also providing great pace and skill in their already-potent attack.

Flop of the match

In truth, barely anyone at Southampton showed up today, but that accolade has to go to Dusan Tadic.

As well as being near-invisible in attack for the visitors, the Serbian let his side down with a costly error leading to Salah’s first goal and was subbed off early.

Despite so much promise when he first joined, Tadic really isn’t justifying his place in Mauricio Pellegrino’s team right now.

Stat of the match

Salah scored twice for Liverpool in their win over Southampton

Of course it involves Salah again – the 25-year-old has made a small piece of Liverpool history this evening.

According to Empire of the Kop, Salah now stands alone as the player with the most goals in his first 12 Liverpool appearances – ahead of a certain Robbie Fowler.

It may have taken them three years, but it looks increasingly like Liverpool finally have their replacement for Luis Suarez.

Player ratings

Liverpool: Mignolet 6, Lovren 7, Klavan 6, Alexander-Arnold 7, Moreno 7, Henderson 8, Wijnaldum 8, Coutinho 9, Mane 7, Salah 9, Firmino 7 / Subs: Can 6, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6, Milner 6

Southampton: Forster 5, Van Dijk 6, Hoedt 6, Soares 6, Bertrand 6, Davis 5, Romeu 6, Redmond 5, Tadic 5, Boufal 5, Long 6 / Subs: Ward-Prowse 6, Austin 5, Gabbiadini 6

Reaction

Unsurprisingly, it was all about one man – Mohamed Salah. It’s fair to say Anfield has a new hero.

At one point in the game, Salah and Eden Hazard were level on Premier League goals in 2017, with nine each – though the Liverpool man has, of course, only been involved since August.

Okay so Hazard went and ruined things a bit by scoring again against West Brom, but Liverpool fans certainly enjoyed the moment with a reminder to the Egyptian’s old club…

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