Liverpool vs Chelsea: Mohamed Salah’s goal banished five years of ‘slip’ torment in the most spectacular way

With every game, Jurgen Klopp’s side grow in belief and are ready to pounce on a Manchester City mistake

Has there ever been a more spectacular way of silencing the haters? Has there ever been a more emphatic way of banishing the torment which one club has not been able to escape for five years?

Mohamed Salah’s goal here was not necessarily the most important for Liverpool because it was not the first but it was the one which will involve the most replays – perhaps until the end of time if a league title comes to Anfield next month.

Salah had performed with the sort of intensity and trickery that had been absent from the rest of his team’s play before they took the lead. There was a developing sense that he might do something but surely not as outrageous as this.

Robbie Fowler believes the purest strike of his Liverpool career was the one against Aston Villa 23 years ago when he turned Steve Staunton before ramming a low-rising shot past Mark Bosnich from 30-yards.

Salah’s did not involve the skill of Fowler’s or the distance but it was more dramatic and it was pumped into the top corner rather than the bottom.

The scene inside Anfield in the seconds after that moment were of atomic levels due to the scale of the pressure which had previously been present.

Three second half minutes washed all of that pressure away. The mood shifted primarily because of another sideways pass by Jordan Henderson. The midfielder, who has often been criticised for making too many of them, had been close to Chelsea’s defensive touchline when he made this one, though. Liverpool’s crosses from that position before had been blind but Henderson’s was perfectly directed. Two yards out, Sadio Mane could not miss with a header. In the corner, in front of an erupting Kop, Henderson celebrated as if he'd scored himself. The relief was enormous.

This game, however, will be remembered by what Salah did 180 seconds later. His substitution as injury time approached felt like a gesture by Jurgen Klopp to allow Anfield to acknowledge his brilliance. What followed was a presidential reception for the forward Anfield prefers to think of as a king.

Salah celebrates after his wondergoal (AP)

The problems of Liverpool’s first half by that point seemed in the distant past; 45-minutes which felt like 45 seconds due to the concentration of the atmosphere and Chelsea’s commitment towards conservativism, though when they attacked, they did look dangerous.

Liverpool’s best chance of the period had fallen to Salah in the sixth minute. It was the sort of opportunity Liverpool’s forwards practice last in the warm up where crosses are fed in at different angles, testing the variation in their shooting ability. Perhaps Mane’s delivery was slightly behind him and he did have the space to adjust his body had he noticed but he did not and Kepa saved easier than he should have been able to.

Maurizio Sarri’s decision to use Eden Hazard as a lone striker potentially had its benefits because it meant the Belgian was positioned closer to goal and after all, he is usually a deadly finisher. Yet that reduced the possibility of his involvement in the build-up where his artwork brings others into the game. This nevertheless afforded greater discipline in Chelsea’s midfield, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho and N’golo Kante aligning themselves narrowly with Chelsea’s defence, not allowing Liverpool’s forward line the room to breathe.

Hazard threatened more after Chelsea fell behind and Gonzalo Higuain was introduced, pushing him to the left flank. Just as Liverpool had established a two-goal cushion inside two minutes, Hazard could have equalised inside the same timeframe. Liverpool’s opener might historically be regarded as defining but it could quite easily have been Hazard’s first miss, which struck the post.

In avoiding defeat, Liverpool’s unbeaten run at home in the league now stretches into a third year. Their last April home victory over Chelsea was in 1990 and a few weeks later they were crowned champions. It will take a slip from Manchester City for that to happen again but Liverpool, with Salah in this frame of mind, are not a team whose momentum is slowing. Instead, it feels like their belief is growing stronger.