Liverpool make Premier League statement as Arne Slot gets what he demands
This was an evening to be endured rather than enjoyed for the travelling Kop. And with Arne Slot’s machine firing only intermittently, here Liverpool were reliant on the ex-factor to move top of the Premier League.
While Slot didn’t have too many real selection dilemmas for the trip to rock-bottom Wolves, one possible conundrum solved itself when Darwin Nunez was ruled out through illness.
But there was good reason for Diogo Jota to have been given the nod beyond an obvious desire to feature against his former team, his two trademark opportunist strikes in the midweek League Cup win over West Ham United having ended a mini-goal drought from the opening weekend of the season.
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Not that there was too much evidence of Jota’s attacking threat during much of a first-half performance at the Molineux that echoed too many of his team-mates, the Portuguese largely hounded out of it by Wolves centre-back Santiago Bueno and left to feed off scraps from a subdued midfield and attack.
A strangely-delayed but merited yellow card for a foul on Mario Lemina encapsulated his frustration, Jota having chased down the Wolves skipper in pursuit of some possession.
Jota, though, is nothing if not persistent. And that approach paid off in the second minute of additional time before the break when, with Liverpool recycling the ball from a corner, he accelerated down the left wing beyond Jorgen Strand Larsen and stood up a cross for Ibrahima Konate to thump in a header.
But after Wolves were gifted a way back into the game, Jota’s doggedness and scent for goal ensured the momentum swung back towards Liverpool barely five minutes later, forcing his way in front of Nelson Semedo as he attempted to reach Trent Alexander-Arnold’s inviting cross and being held back by the Wolves defender. Mohamed Salah did the rest from the spot.
As with Liverpool, this was by no means Jota’s best game. However, the striker epitomised the desire and effort that has long been instilled in this squad and which Slot demands as a bare minimum.
Very early days, of course. But that the Reds stand a point clear at the summit is the latest statement of a Slot era in which Jota is already becoming an integral part.