Mohamed Salah strikes as Liverpool beat Manchester City after VAR reprieve

Mohamed Salah had seen his number go up before he brought up that of Manchester City. With passions raging and City threatening to wrest a high-end encounter their way, Jürgen Klopp went for a triple substitution. There were 72 minutes on the clock but why was Salah’s No 11 up on the board? He had been Liverpool’s most dangerous player.

It must have been a mistake because Salah was going nowhere. Klopp explained that to him on the touchline as he oversaw the changes. Moments later, Salah would storm through to score the game’s only goal, handing City a first defeat of the Premier League season and reminding everybody that this Liverpool team are a long way from being a spent force. Did anybody seriously believe that anyway, despite their erratic start to the season?

Salah’s goal was a personal disaster for João Cancelo, who had reached in to try to nick away an Alisson clearance only to get it all wrong. When Salah rampaged through, there was no doubt as to whether he would finish.

The second half was a thriller and there was plenty more to come. Earlier, Pep Guardiola had raged at the disallowing of a Phil Foden goal for a foul by Erling Haaland in the build-up but it was Klopp who saw red, losing his mind when the referee, Anthony Taylor, did not whistle for a Bernardo Silva challenge on Salah. He would be directed to the stands.

What did Klopp miss from the touchline? A saving Virgil van Dijk header, as Haaland lurked behind him; a terrible Thiago Alcántara tackle on Rodri when he was fortunate to escape with a yellow card – Thiago’s defence was that he slipped – and some atrocious finishing from Darwin Núñez, who entered as a substitute.

It meant that Liverpool could not engineer any breathing space but perhaps it