What Alexis Mac Allister did to Cody Gakpo as Liverpool midfielder targeted

Liverpool maintained their encouraging start to the Premier League season with a hard-earned win at rock-bottom Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening. Mohamed Salah scored a penalty after Ibrahima Konate's opener was cancelled out by Rayan Ait-Nouri in the second half as the Reds secured a 2-1 triumph.

The result means Arne Slot has now won seven of his first eight games in charge with his team moving to the summit of the early top-flight table.

But there was plenty that went unnoticed or under the radar during the 90 minutes at Molineux...

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Gakpo go-slow

Those devious rapscallions at Arsenal meant this was a week dominated by discussions of "dark arts" and, well, stuff that every team has been doing since the beginning of time but making it not quite as obvious as the Gunners did at Manchester City last week.

There was evidence from Liverpool, who began to take an age preparing to deliver set-pieces and generally took matters at their own pace during the final quarter.

And it's why, when Cody Gakpo rushed to take a throw-in with five minutes remaining, Alexis Mac Allister urged the substitute to slow down while tapping the side of his head. Sometimes it pays to take your time.

Dom delivers?

Dominik Szoboszlai would be the first to admit he's had better games than at Molineux, where his evening was cut short long before the final whistle.

And twice during the first half he was collared by Slot on the touchline as the game was in progress, presumably being given a few tactical instructions in his ear.

Failing to score from a matter of yards probably wasn't one of the directives the Hungarian was asked to achieve, however. It happens to the best of them.

Not so super Mario

Wolves boss Gary O'Neil admitted his team lost the plot in an emotional sense when they became wrapped up in the euphoria of briefly being level on Saturday.

But there was already a sign of that immediately after going behind to Konate's opener, when skipper Mario Lemina launched an audacious attempt to score direct from the kick-off.

That his effort barely reached Alisson Becker in the Liverpool goal suggested the ironic cheers of derision from the away end were not misplaced.

Wolves fans bored

Famously, Wolves are the only team to have had a poor VAR decision go against them last season (although to be fair they did have to put up with quite a few stinkers). And their fans aren't going to forget about it any time soon.

While "Premier League, corrupt as f***" boomed around Molineux whenever a debatable decision went against their team, there was another chant when the officials were ponderously checking the validity of the home side's equaliser.

"Boring, boring" came the shout before the goal was finally given. They are not wrong.