Premier League football returned with an action-packed start at Anfield, even if there wasn’t an early opener to match, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin sending his header straight at Alisson Becker before Salah uncharacteristically made a mess of his effort at the other end.
The relentless nature of the opening quarter-hour was reflected when Liverpool conjured a blistering break having defended a Toffees corner, only for Luis Diaz’s shot to be deflected over by an outstanding challenge from Ashley Young.
The game slowed down as Liverpool began to take control, and there was the feeling that something special would be required to open the scoring in a fixture that has seen more goalless draws than any other in the Premier League era.
Amadou Onana tried to provide that with an effort from inside his own half but got it horribly wrong, while Alexis Mac Allister’s venomous strike was spilled before being gathered by Jordan Pickford.
Having done so well to halt Diaz earlier, Young then made his side’s task significantly harder by getting two bookings for fouls on the Colombian inside 37 minutes, adding to the fixture’s record for the most PL red cards.
Sean Dyche responded with two defensive changes before the restart, setting the tone for a 45-minute period in which the Toffees were willing to suffer to earn a point against their bitter rivals.
That was reinforced on the pitch, with James Tarkowski blocking Salah’s shot after Jarrad Branthwaite had slipped and Onana went over the advertising boards after holding off Díaz to let the ball run out of play.
However, frustrations about the decision not to give Ibrahima Konate a second yellow were compounded when Díaz’s cross hit Michael Keane’s hand for a penalty that Salah emphatically converted with a quarter-hour remaining.
Pickford tipped Harvey Elliott’s ambitious strike onto the crossbar and over to maintain some hope, but there was no stopping Liverpool in the final moments.
Darwin Nunez raced forward and teed up Salah, who finished clinically as the Reds responded to back-to-back PL matches without a victory to earn a special win and go top of the table ahead of the weekend’s other fixtures.
Everton, meanwhile, suffer just the second defeat in their last five across all competitions.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
