Fans blown away as Liverpool ace keeps up with the Premier League’s ‘fastest’ player

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Liverpool travelled to Molineux on Friday evening to face Wolves, knowing that a win would see them take a four-point lead overnight at the top of the Premier League.

Despite some early jitters from the Reds, Wolves were incredibly wasteful in the first half and Liverpool went ahead after 19 minutes; Mohamed Salah getting on the end of a lovely Fabinho cut back to take him ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the Premier League’s outright top goalscorer on 11.

Wolves did well to soak up a lot of pressure following the opener and continued to create chances of their own throughout the first half, with their quick switches of play causing Liverpool no end of trouble. Nuno Espirito Santo will have been pulling his glorious beard out at the lack of cutting edge his side showed, however, and the score remained at 1-0 going into half-time.

Wolves were made to pay for their wastefulness in the second half when Salah turned provider, setting up Virgil van Dijk as the Dutchman put Liverpool 2-0 up after 68 minutes with his first Premier League goal for the club. From that point on, Liverpool were happy to keep their shape, fend off the desperate pressure from Wolves and keep hitting the home side on the break.

Here are the major winners and losers from Wolves 0-2 Liverpool.

Winner: Mohamed Salah

Mohamed Salah was tied with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on 10 goals as the Premier League’s top goalscorer heading into Friday’s game against Wolves.

It only took the Egyptian 19 minutes to change that, though, latching onto a Fabinho cut-back to put Jurgen Klopp’s side 1-0 up and taking him clear on 11 goals.  Salah then brought the ball down sweetly on the edge of the box in the second half, before delivering a wonderful ball for Virgil van Dijk to make it 2-0 on 68 minutes.

Salah won the Premier League Golden Boot in some style last season and looks set to battle it out for the award once again. Remember when people were accusing the 26-year-old of being out of form?

Loser: Adama Traore

How can one player be so good and so terrible at the same time? Just watch Adama Traore against Liverpool for your answer to that question.

The Spaniard linked play well for Wolves, setting up a couple of half-chances for his teammates, while his movement kept Liverpool’s back four, and Dejan Lovren especially, on their toes throughout.

But my word, he is so wasteful. Traore missed two gilt-edged chances to put Wolves ahead in the first 10 minutes and against this air-tight Liverpool defence, you just cannot do that. Instead of going into the break one or two goals up, Wolves went in 1-0 down and never recovered, eventually going down 2-0.

Costly misses indeed.

Winner: Virgil van Dijk

So, despite his wastefulness, Traore is pretty much the fastest player in the Premier League right now. Who best in the Liverpool squad to take him on in a sprint then?

Salah? No. Sadio Mane? Nope. Maybe Fabinho? No thanks. Leave it to none other than Virgil van Dijk, who snuffed the Spaniard out in an instant in the second half, sending Twitter absolutely wild with his display of pace.

Then, just 12 minutes later, he got onto the end of a lovely Salah delivery to head home and make it 2-0 to Liverpool, sealing all three points and capping off yet another dominant display from the towering Dutchman – Van Dijk also won more aerial duels (four) than any other player on the pitch.

Name a more effective January signing in the Premier League, we’ll wait…

Loser: Naby Keita

Friday wasn’t the best night for Naby Keita. The former Leipzig man was incredibly wasteful in possession during the first half, even passing the ball straight out of play to waste a Liverpool attack at the end of the first half.

That was the theme of the Guinean’s night as he only managed an 84% pass completion rate and his misery was compounded in the 58th minute when Keita went down holding his knee. The 23-year-old was replaced by Adam Lallana and probably couldn’t wait to hop back onto the team bus and get back home.

Keita has struggled with fitness throughout this season and it remains to be seen what the extent of this latest setback will be.

Winner: Fabinho

Fabinho made a terrible error in the first five minutes, misplacing a pass under absolutely no pressure and setting Traore through on goal for Wolves.

As we’ve mentioned, though, Traore is incredibly wasteful and fired his shot wide. From that point on, Fabinho turned it around and was absolutely brilliant.

The Brazilian snapped into tackles, pressed like a man possessed and provided a lovely cut-back for Salah’s opening goal after a neat one-two with Mane on the right wing.

The former Monaco man is slowly but surely getting to grips with life in the Premier League, and Friday night was further proof of that.

Loser: Manchester City

Liverpool’s win meant they extended their gap at the top of the Premier League to four points, and guaranteed them Christmas No.1.

Granted, Manchester City have a seemingly straightforward task in facing Crystal Palace at home on Saturday, but the Reds’ win puts immense pressure on that game.

Pep Guardiola would have been hoping a Wolves result would allow him to ease Kevin De Bruyne back into action and take the strain off his midfield in the absence of David Silva.

No such luck though for City, who will have to keep rolling on and matching Jurgen Klopp’s side until they face off just after new year. Could the Citizens become the best runners-up in Premier League history?

The post The winners and losers as Liverpool’s win at Wolves confirms Premier League top spot at Christmas appeared first on Squawka News.



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