Mohamed Salah became only the second Liverpool player to score a landmark 100 Premier League goals, as the ‘Reds’ ran out 2-0 winners at Elland Road to keep the heat on their fellow title chasers at the Premier League summit.
Though Leeds began this clash with real determination, Liverpool didn’t take long to settle, and they emphatically utilised their superiority on paper and grass after just 21 minutes. As is his second nature, Trent Alexander-Arnold lofted an enticing cross that evaded a static Leeds defence and found Salah, with the Egyptian clinically converting under pressure inside Illan Meslier’s six-yard area to put Liverpool 1-0 up and secure his personal landmark.
Liverpool thought they had doubled their advantage just two minutes later, when Thiago Alcântara had the ball in the back of the net, only to be thwarted by a linesman's flag due to an offside in the build-up.
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa replaced the largely anonymous Rodrigo with Tyler Roberts at HT, but Liverpool quickly tore his gameplan to pieces, as Fabinho made the most of being given permission to play by FIFA, and doubled the Reds’ advantage on 50 minutes, firing in a rebound from close-range after a Virgil van Dijk attempt had been blocked.
The hosts were reduced to ten men on the hour mark, as substitute Pascal Struijk was sent off for a robust challenge on Harvey Elliott, who was forced to leave the field on a stretcher. Not shaken, Liverpool closed the game out to make it 14 domestic games unbeaten, and even added a third in the 93rd minute. Not to be denied against ten men, Sadio Mané scored his 79th Premier League goal with a graceful pivot from Thiago Alcântara’s precise pass, before firing into the back of the net.
Liverpool were deserving winners, while Leeds will be nervous of becoming the next victims of 'second season syndrome' having now failed to record a win inside the opening four games of a top-flight season for the first time since 1958/59.
