Liverpool keep Premier League title pursuit on track with win at Brighton

When coming up with a list of the more in-form final-third productivity merchants in the Premier League, Joel Matip probably isn’t the name who usually springs to mind.

Maybe that’s overstating it somewhat, but the newest Player of the Month has scored one and assisted twice now in his last five matches, and it was he who found the time and clarity in his delivery to help Liverpool open the scoring at Brighton, en route to a 2-0 win.

It ended what had been a rather chaotic opening from the visitors, and it was a largely different game thereafter.

Neal Maupay flashed an early effort wide before Alexis Mac Allister pirouetted his way past Fabinho to almost open another chance for the home side. Sadio Mane was denied by Robert Sanchez’s fingertips at the near post, meanwhile.

But attacking play was sporadic from the visitors in the opening stages, the Reds being unable to eradicate sloppy passes from their game: Naby Keita with the most glaring of wayward passes got an earful from Virgil van Dijk, and Luis Diaz received a verbal volley from Jurgen Klopp after losing a challenge by the touchline.

But a moment of quality – and bravery – 20 minutes in opened the scoring and changed the course of the game.

Matip lofted a pass over the static defence and Diaz’s diagonal run caught everybody cold, including goalkeeper Sanchez, who came out and got nowhere near the ball.

He did, however, get rather too close to Diaz, poleaxing the forward just as the Colombian headed into an unguarded net. A VAR check looked at a possible red card for serious foul play, but curiously decided against.

From then on, though, Liverpool controlled matters, creating plenty of further openings in the remainder of the half and with the recovered Diaz at the heart of so much of their best work, on and off the ball.

While he proved an outlet and a goal threat, he also made countless recovery sprints to track and tackle Tariq Lamptey, so often Brighton’s own spark and ball-carrier.

Mohamed Salah, also berated by his manager before the break for shooting when he might have squared, saw a deflected shot loop onto the crossbar after the restart, then scuffed another wide after a powerful Diaz dribble. He looked frustrated.

The home fans similarly grew infuriated at referee Mike Dean’s calls going against them, unsurprisingly overlooking the worst decision of all being that to spare Sanchez.

When the next big call was made, one of those feelings of disgruntlement came to an end. It wasn't the Brighton fans’: a handball, a penalty, Salah dispatching it down the middle on the hour mark. He departed soon after through injury, but the relief on his and his manager’s face spoke volumes after a recent lack of clinical edge.

While the on-pitch events were extremely watchable, every Premier League game retains an obvious backdrop story right now.

Elsewhere there is talk of sanctions, whose owners should be viewed as least-palatable and how much obligation supporters should have to denounce or ignore everything that goes on above pitch level.

Brighton, then, represent something of a change.

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Wearing their yellow and blue away kit on home soil in support of Ukraine, the club is one also in tune with the local population, inclusive in all its meanings. The ground may have a sponsored corporate name, but it’s also still the Amex Community Stadium. Such a meaningful-to-all approach can still be found in top-flight English football.

But in the end, on any given Saturday, it’s still on-pitch and in-table which matters to the tens of thousands inside the ground.

This time it turned out to be more of the same: a fifth straight defeat for Brighton; an eighth straight league win for Liverpool.

The gap at the top of the Premier League is three points once again, and the Seagulls continue their wait since Boxing Day for a home victory.