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| Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah |
Sadio Mané scored a landmark 100th Premier League goal, but it was his striking counterparts Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino who stole the show in a 5-0 rout at Vicarage Road, with the latter scoring his second hat trick in England's top flight.
Already in devastating form – and high on confidence after his sensational goal against Manchester City a fortnight ago – Salah spearheaded the first of many Liverpool chances inside the first minute after a Mané flick on. Though he hit the crossbar and found himself flagged for offside, it was a sure sign of the one-sided battle to come, and no individual duel epitomised this more than that of Salah against would-be Watford marker Danny Rose.
Outclassed to a grotesque degree, Rose spent the early stages chasing the Egyptian's shadow, and Liverpool’s pressure paid off in the ninth minute, when a sumptuous Salah through-ball found Mané who swept home. In doing so, he became only the third player after Les Ferdinand and Emile Heskey to achieve a century of Premier League goals without a single penalty. There was never a sense that the points were going anywhere but Merseyside, and Firmino got in on the act in the 37th minute, starting a quick passing move and finishing it with a tap-in following James Milner's overlap.
Pre-COVID memories of ending the Reds’ unbeaten run of 44 league games had clearly failed to inspire Watford, and it took only seven second-half minutes for Liverpool to finally reverse the scoreline from their last visit to Vicarage Road. In a trademark Liverpool move involving a marauding wingback, Andy Robertson’s teasing ball led to a mix up between defender and goalkeeper, allowing Firmino a simple tap in for his second goal.
Salah again worked his magic just two minutes later, and did so with a goal that outstripped even his effort against City. With aesthetic mastery that would comfortably rival the likes of Ronaldo and Bergkamp, he demonstrated superhuman close-control on the ball to dummy several Watford defenders attempting to crowd him out. Having left four yellow shirts choking on his dust, Salah tricked his way clear before curling past Ben Foster.
This was Watford's cue to finally create several chances under the glare of new manager Claudio Ranieri, who cannot fail to realise the scale of the task ahead. Despite this, Firmino was not to be outdone by his fellow attackers, and rounded off a great day for the 'Reds' in injury-time, as he tapped home for his hat-trick to give a more accurate reflection of the gulf between red and yellow in this Hertfordshire hammering.
