Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:09 pm
Mohamed Salah netted twice as Liverpool beat Watford 2-0 at Anfield to extended their lead at the top of the Premier League in Nigel Pearson’s first game in charge.
The visitors had earlier missed the chance to go ahead when Abdoulaye Doucoure mishit his shot after Etienne Capoue escaped the offside trap to set him up.
Reds took the lead with a typically lethal counter-attack in the 38th minute as Sadio Mane collected the ball on the left and released Salah, who sprinted towards goal before cutting in and curling a shot home with his right foot.
Mane thought that he had doubled the lead five minutes after the break but VAR showed he was marginally offside when nodding the ball in from Xherdan Shaqiri’s whipped cross.
Watford had scored only nine goals in the league coming into this game, and the reason for that became evident when poor finishing cost them yet again as an unchallenged Ismaila Sarr scuffed his shot after goalkeeper Alisson Becker parried Gerard Deulofeu’s cross.
Salah then scored his eighth league goal against Watford in five matches with a brilliant back-heeled effort in added time to secure the three points for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
The win restored Liverpool’s 11-point advantage over second-placed Leicester City, who host Norwich City later in the day, while Watford’s fourth defeat in five games left new manager Nigel Pearson’s side rooted to the bottom of the table.
