THE NOTEBOOK: Jurgen Klopp’s eight-year anniversary party is spoiled, Carlos Baleba shows he can be Brighton’s Moises Caicedo replacement and Seagulls fans mock the Liverpool boss with ‘replay’ chants

• Brighton rescued a point against Liverpool in an enthralling 2-2 draw
• Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was unable to celebrate a win on his anniversary
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘It’s All Kicking Off!’

Liverpool were denied a comeback by Brighton captain Lewis Dunk striking late from close-range to recue a point for the Seagulls on Sunday.

Mohamed Salah scored twice to cancel out Simon Adingra’s opening goal after he captialised on Alexis Mac Allister’s mistake on the Liverpool midfielder’s return to his former club.

Sunday marked exactly eight years of Jurgen Klopp’s tenure at Liverpool. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the players in the matchday squad from that nil-nil draw at White Hart Lane in October 2015 remain at Liverpool. 

Joe Gomez is now the only player in the squad who arrived before Klopp, having signed in June 2015 from Charlton when Brendan Rodgers was in charge.

Jurgen Klopp celebrated his eight-year anniversary in charge of Liverpool but watched his side draw

Joe Gomez (red shirt) is the only Liverpool player that was at the club when Klopp arrived

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In that time, Klopp has certainly gained a reputation as one of the more animated managers in the league but here it was his counterpart who made for terrific viewing throughout. Roberto De Zerbi was non-stop on the touchlines, regularly sharing his views to fourth official Graham Scott. 

When Brighton had a shout for a penalty in the second half, De Zerbi raced to the dugout to view the incident on a screen before carrying on in protest. 

‘I think in future I can break the screen’ were his words pre-match when he was asked about VAR errors. Luckily he didn’t but the Italian was booked by Anthony Taylor before Klopp came in to hug De Zerbi. 

The mutual respect is clear with Klopp saying pre-match that Brighton ‘are probably the best coached team in the league’. 

In fact, he is the first Premier League manager that Klopp has faced four or more times across all competitions and failed to beat (D2, L2).

Spare a thought for the editor of Brighton’s matchday programme. Jason Steele was on the front cover, with an in-depth interview inside but De Zerbi opted to start Bart Verbruggen instead. 

Both Steele and Verbuggen have started four league games each this season with De Zerbi yet to decide on a number one but for all the emphasis of playing out from the back, he would desperately have hoped that Verbruggen just got rid of the ball instead of giving it away for the penalty that led to Liverpool’s second goal.

Spare a thought for Brighton’s programme editor who had a picture of Jason Steele on the front cover only for the goalkeeper to not play

Brighton have a habit of including players that almost seem to come out of nowhere. Five of the 12 teenagers to start a Premier League game this season have done so for Brighton and here, 19-year-old midfielder Carlos Baleba made his first start. Evan Ferguson, Julio Enciso, Facundo Buonanotte and Jack Hinshelwood are the other four teenagers to start for Brighton this campaign. 

De Zerbi rates Baleba highly, saying that the Cameroonian can be as good as Moises Caicedo and he impressed. If that’s anything to go by, then expect Brighton to offload him for a lot of money in the near future.

19-year-old midfielder Carlos Baleba (left) made his first start and showed he can be Brighton’s replacement for Moises Caicedo

Simon Adingra’s goal meant that Brighton have now scored in 24 consecutive league matches. 

There have been just eight longer runs in Premier League history with Arsenal holding the overall record of 55 games between May 2001 and December 2022.

When Liverpool equalised five minutes before half-time, the home support responded with chants of ‘We want a replay’ directed at Jurgen Klopp after his comments midweek. 

But a few minutes later, those chants came to an abrupt end when Brighton needlessly gave away a penalty, which Mo Salah converted. Klopp and Liverpool perhaps had another potential case with PGMOL, with the IFAB laws stating that a player should be sent off if they do not attempt to play or challenge for the ball and thus deny a goal-scoring opportunity. 

Brighton supporters mocked Klopp for calling for a replay after Liverpool were wrongfully denied a goal by VAR against Spurs

Pascal Gross’s shirt pull on Dominik Szoboszlai was certainly not an attempt to play the ball but the officials curiously believed that Szoboszlai was not moving towards goal.

If you want entertainment, then watch Brighton. There’s been 37 goals in eight Brighton league games this season. 

Only Man United (39 – 2001-02), Arsenal (38 – 2009-10) and Man City (38 – 2022-23) have seen more goals in their opening eight games to a Premier League season.

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify

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