Salah saves the day for Reds after Gunners flog Fulham, Palace win
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring their fourth goal, his third, against Leeds, during their EPL match at Anfield in Liverpool on Saturday. Agence France-Presse
Leeds’ return to the English top-flight under Marcelo Bielsa after a 16-year absence was highly anticipated and a clash against the reigning champions lived up to expectations as three times they equalised through Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford and Mateusz Klich to cancel out Salah’s first-half double and Virgil van Dijk’s header.
However, Salah’s second penalty of the game two minutes from time ensured Liverpool got off to a winning start.
Earlier, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal kicked off the new Premier League season with the kind of confident display that has become their hallmark since Arteta took charge.
The Gunners’ boss expects Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to finally commit his future to Arsenal in the next few days after the Gabon forward’s superb strike capped Saturday’s 3-0 win at Fulham.
In the second match, Crystal Palace defied a lengthy injury list to beat Southampton 1-0 in their opening encounter of the league thanks to Wilfried Zaha’s early goal on Saturday.
Arsenal’s free-flowing attack was too incisive for promoted Fulham and Alexandre Lacazette gave the visitors an early lead at Craven Cottage.
Brazilian defender Gabriel Magalhaes scored Arsenal’s second after the break in his first appearance since his close-season move from Lille.
Aubameyang added the final flourish with a typically eye-catching strike that emphasised why Arsenal are so desperate for the club captain to sign an extension to the contract which expires at the end of the season.
Gunners boss Arteta had good news for fans concerned Aubameyang might leave as he revealed their team’s talisman is set to sign the contract offer.
“I’m really positive we are going to get it done very soon and hopefully in the next few days you will get some news,” Arteta told BT Sport.
With former Chelsea winger Willian providing a pair of assists on his debut, it was the ideal way for Arsenal to start a season that appears full of promise after last season’s FA Cup triumph.
Although their eighth-placed finish in the Premier League ranked as Arsenal’s lowest final position since 1995, Arteta had little to do with that after taking charge in December following the dismal reign of Unai Emery.
The former Manchester City assistant coach has been a much-needed breath of fresh air for Arsenal and pushing for a place in the top four should not be beyond his revitalised team this term.
“I wanted to see my team determined to come to this difficult ground against a really good team that has been promoted. We had a lot of energy and did the things we trained on in this period,” Arteta said.
In the second match of the day, Crystal Palace’s Zaha directed home a cushioned volley in the 13th minute after being picked out by a deep cross from Andros Townsend at an empty Selhurst Park.
Palace fielded a heavily patched-up defense because of injuries to center backs James Tomkins, Gary Cahill and Mamadou Sakho and full backs Patrick van Aanholt and Nathan Ferguson. Offseason signings Eberechi Eze and Michy Batshuayi weren’t deemed ready to start, either, by manager Roy Hodgson.
Yet Palace managed to frustrate Southampton, which has been widely expected to go well this season after the team’s strong end to the last campaign following the restart of league play.
The closest the visitors came to an equalizer was when Che Adams had a volley well saved by Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita early in the second half.
The match featured an effective use of the pitchside monitor to review refereeing decisions after Kyle Walker-Peters was shown a red card for a high tackle on Tyrick Mitchell. Referee Jon Moss looked at his decision on the screen and changed his mind, instead showing the right back a yellow card.
Zaha had an 82nd-minute goal ruled out for a marginal offside that was backed up by the VAR, and smashed wide a one-on-one chance in stoppage time.
Agence France-Presse
English Premier League results on Saturday:
Crystal Palace 1 (Zaha 13) Southampton 0; Fulham 0 Arsenal 3 (Lacazette 9, Gabriel 49, Aubameyang 57);
Liverpool 4 (Salah 4-pen, 33, 88-pen, Van Dijk 20) Leeds 3 (Harrison 12, Bamford 30, Klich 66)
