Salah inspires Liverpool to victory over Brighton

Mohamed Salah marked his eagerly awaited return to Liverpool with an assist as Arne Slot’s side beat Brighton, thanks to a Hugo Ekitike double. The victory pushed the Reds up to sixth as they extended their unbeaten run to five games, recording their first win at Anfield since 4 November.

All eyes were on Salah, who returned to the squad after being left out of Liverpool’s midweek Champions League win at Inter Milan following his outburst last weekend at Leeds United.

Named on the bench by Slot, the Egyptian forward came on in the 26th minute after defender Joe Gomez was forced off with injury, with Dominik Szoboszlai slotting in at right-back.

Earlier, Gomez played his part in Liverpool’s opener as his header found Ekitike, who took one touch and volleyed past Bart Verbruggen after just 46 seconds — the quickest Premier League goal of the season so far.

Liverpool punished Fabian Hürzeler’s side for their wastefulness when Salah’s corner picked out an unmarked Ekitike at the back post and he headed in his second on the hour mark. It was the Frenchman’s 10th goal of the season and his second double in as many league games, following the 3-3 draw at Leeds.

Salah’s assist took him to 277 goal involvements in 302 Premier League appearances for Liverpool — the most by any player for a single club in the competition, overtaking Wayne Rooney’s 276 for Manchester United.

He was involved in several promising attacks but missed a golden opportunity to score his 251st goal for the club when he blazed wide in injury time after being teed up by Federico Chiesa.

After the game, Salah applauded all four sides of Anfield, with the Egyptian set to report for national team duty on Monday ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations. He could miss up to eight games if Egypt reach the final in Morocco.