Arne Slot made it a winning start to his Liverpool tenure as his side turned on the style in the second half to beat Ipswich Town 2-0.
Kieran McKenna’s newly-promoted side restricted Liverpool to no shots on target in the first 45 minutes as their intensity and pressing made life hard for the Reds, but the difference in class soon shone through after the break.
Diogo Jota scored the first Premier League goal of the Slot era when gobbling up an expert pass from Mohamed Salah on 60 minutes before Salah got his own five minutes later and became the outright top scorer in Premier League opening-day matches with nine goals. Of
with Jota able to force the opener on the hour mark following an assist by Salah. Jota had inexplicably headed wide in the 59th minute from a wonderful Trent Alexander-Arnold delivery but redeemed himself 60 seconds afterwards with a typically tidy finish.
According to the laws of the game: “Players can be cautioned for handling the ball when stopping a promising attack” so as that incident took place out on the wing and with covering players nearby no card was shown. Additionally, VAR can’t intervene with second yellows.
Five minutes later it was 2-0 when Virgil van Dijk picked out Salah, who exchanged passes with Dominik Szoboszlai before steering a low finish home. That was one of 15 shots Liverpool attempted in a completely dominant second half where the task facing McKenna and his team this season was laid bare.
