Szoboszlai relief as Liverpool end long-standing Premier League record | OneFootball

Dominik Szoboszlai was presumably the most relieved man watching Liverpool become the first visiting team to win a Premier League game at the Stadium of Light since Swansea in 2017.

And Arne Slot was probably the second most relieved man.

He needed this. On a day that began with Thomas Frank at long last put out of his misery at Spurs and tonight saw pressure mount on Sean Dyche at Forest and Oliver Glasner at Palace and Fabian Hurzeler at Brighton, Slot could at least take a step away from the managergeddon carnage currently engulfing the Premier League.

Szoboszlai’s absence following his interesting choice to put himself out of this game rather than allow a 2-1 defeat to become a 3-1 defeat against Man City forced Slot to deploy Wataru Endo at right-back, and to no great surprise or criticism of the Japanese on his first Premier League start of the season many promising Liverpool attacks floundered upon reaching him.

Szoboszlai’s relief at what was ultimately a distinctly Arsenal-flavoured win for the Reds – struggling to create clear chances from open play but fashioning several from set-pieces, one of which is eventually converted by a centre-back – will have been tempered by the sight of Endo suffering a nasty-looking ankle injury when his planted foot got stuck underneath him.

He gamely tried to continue but the sight of him leaving the ground on a stretcher raised fears his bravery might have caused further damage.

Liverpool had the lead by that point, Van Dijk’s header from a Mo Salah corner too powerful for Habib Diarra to keep out on the line.

Without ever being quite at their best, Liverpool were certainly value for the win against a Sunderland team who fought as hard as you’d expect to preserve what was the Premier League’s last standing unbeaten home record.

Brian Brobbey and Nilson Angulo kept Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate honest, but found Liverpool’s centre-backs in less generous mood than has so often been the case this season.

Andy Robertson enjoyed a rare start at left-back, and might just take the prize for third-most relieved man at the fact he finds himself still playing for a decent side rather than the fate he almost suffered at the end of the January transfer window which just doesn’t bear thinking about.

It was a fits and starts kind of evening for Liverpool. There was nothing bad, as such, but not enough bits of good joined together into a compelling whole. Salah got his 92nd Premier League assist but remains just nothing like the player we know him to be, while Cody Gakpo remains a conspicuous point of frustrating weakness in that four-pronged Liverpool attack.

Florian Wirtz becomes more beguiling by the game, however, and is clearly now playing with the confidence and grasp of Our Football that he lacked in his early struggles. The least shocking element of the whole evening was the frequency with which some Wirtz flick or touch would have Joe Cole purring on TNT commentary. Or at least the bits of TNT commentary that could be heard over the enthusiastic if industrial-languaged alternative commentary being provided from the executive box directly behind Fletch and the lads.

Salah, apparently, ‘gets so much f*cking protection’. You don’t get that kind of content from Ally McCoist.

In summary, then… not a vintage game but entertaining enough in its own ways. More importantly a vital and impressive result for Liverpool in what you still imagine will turn out to be a three-into-two fight for Champions League football with Chelsea and Man United, both of whom fumbled the ball against relegation fodder last night.

Sunderland might wonder if they might have been a touch bolder a touch earlier, but as ever this season with Sunderland there is the need to step back and marvel at where they are. If you’re a promoted team walking away on a February evening a bit downhearted about the way you’ve lost your unbeaten home record due to a 1-0 defeat to Liverpool, then things aren’t so bad.