Five things learnt as special Salah goal sees Liverpool beat Man City

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Liverpool may have just kickstarted their Premier League season with a pulsating 1-0 win over Manchester City as Mohamed Salah stole the show but that was far from the only story of the game as Phil Foden also saw a goal ruled out for offside and Jurgen Klopp was sent off. Express Sport picks out five things learnt from the blockbuster Premier League clash.

Robertson importance

Kostas Tsimikas had shown glimpses of his ability to step in for Andy Robertson, but the Greece international had been guilty of numerous defensive errors in recent weeks. And Jurgen Klopp was given a huge boost for the game against City that Roberson was deemed fit enough to start and his influence was clear to see from the off.

Regularly a danger going forward, Robertson was equally calm and collected at the back and kept Joao Cancelo quiet for the opening 45 minutes. Liverpool conceded three goals in each league game Robertson missed, but they look a far more compact unit with him back in the side.

Jurgen Klopp fury

Tempers flared in the dying minutes from both managers being furious at the match officiating. But Jurgen Klopp overstepped the mark in the final few minutes after reacting with fury to a foul not being given against Bernardo Silva on Salah.

The Liverpool boss was shown a red card for confronting the assistant referee as he ran past him. Klopp was forced to watch the remainder of the match away from the touchline as the atmosphere only increased.

Salah resurgence

Salah appears to be a victim of his own success at Liverpool as he’d taken some criticism for his early-season performances despite finding the net five times in 12 matches. More worrying though was how often the Egyptian superstar was on the periphery of games prior to his record hat-trick against Rangers this past week.

That was far from the case against City though with Salah seemingly back to his creative best, looking for the ball at every occasion and driving at the defence. He came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock earlier in the second half only for Ederson to deny him. There was no denying him a second time after a sensational pass from Alisson. Salah took it down beautifully, turning Joao Cancelo out and going on to slot past the City goalkeeper as Anfield went bezerk.

Milner silences critics (again)

Social media was flooded with Liverpool fans fearing the worst when they saw James Milner would be starting at right-back against the in-form Phil Foden. The versatile 36-year-old has proven to be a crucial part of Liverpool’ success over the past few years, but there are still sections of the home supporters who fear he can be exploited against better teams.

However, Milner put in a brilliant shift to keep Foden quiet for most of the match and frustrating the City attackers. It’s not the first time Milner has stepped up for Liverpool when they needed him and will almost certainly not be the last.

VAR anger

Anthony Taylor was always going to have some tough decisions to make in this game and both managers felt aggrieved at different points of the matches. But the biggest talking point came in the 53rd minute when he disallowed Foden’s goal after Erling Haaland was adjudged to have fouled Fabinho in the process.

VAR sent the match official over to the pitchside monitor with Taylor eventually ruling a foul, much to the dismay of Guardiola and City supporters. It appeared to be the right decision in the end, but that moment sparked the match into life with the noise around Anfield immediately going up a few decibels.

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