Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 2 Brighton 0 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at Anfield…
STARTS don’t get better. You pick a side with five midfielders, with Joe Gomez at right-back and you get about as quick a goal as you could hope for. Indeed Gomez shows genuine aggression and brain, and the ball falls to your in-form striker who takes two touches and bang. You have the cushion you need.
Football management is a slippery thing. The manager hasn’t accounted for this; their manager certainly hasn’t, but this quick passage of play makes everything easier, makes the selection he felt he had to make feel better because you know Liverpool will be able to look after it.
The first-half then belonged to Curtis Jones. He was at the centre of everything for Liverpool again and constantly available. He was the best possible support for his teammates, in one move playing a series of give and go passes across the length of the pitch. He backed himself and took care of those around him.
But the match belongs to the player who scores the brace. Hugo Ekitike pulled all over the pitch and linked with every single one of his Liverpool teammates brilliantly but what you want from the sole striker after the manager picks five midfielders is what you get – the output. He is constantly looking to get his shots away and backing himself, rightly.
It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t a walk in the park. Alisson Becker makes a wonderful save first-half from Diego Gomez who should then be sent-off and should then score. Neither happens so, Florian Wirtz’s chest looking like a cheese grater aside, there is no harm done.
Brighton are constantly looking to make something happen. Milos Kerkez is straining every sinew to keep the effervescent Yankuba Minteh in check. I like him an awful lot. Brajan Gruda does 90 minutes running in 45 and then comes back out and tries to do 30 in 15. He presses like a demon. Mats Weiffer has worked right-back out in this league now.
But Liverpool are just that bit better, that bit more assured than they have been recently and than Brighton and have that opening goal, that cheap early one which makes all of football easier to play.
Gomez unfortunately has to come off but is replaced by Mo Salah who is then constantly involved and dangerous throughout. His introduction means a tweak in shape but Liverpool make that work and keep Wirtz in the action as well. Wirtz plays very well until he begins to tire but in the first-half it is him dallying on the edge of their box not once but twice which leads to good counter opportunities.
Salah’s performance will end up analysed to within an inch of its life which is wholly unnecessary. It was quite good, very willing and not for the first time begged a couple of questions as to whether or not being part of a front two from time to time is what Salah could do with at this stage of his career, especially with strong midfielders behind.
The oddness of this season has become that, game to game, Liverpool need Arne Slot to find solutions and that means his experienced players need to find them too. Today Jones ends at right-back, Robertson left midfield, Chiesa right mid in a 4-4-2, Salah through the middle. Form, fitness and the need for results have required Slot to go beyond tweaks. This often isn’t good but Slot is creating new building blocks for himself.
Jones, Wirtz and Ekitike are crucial to all of this. For too long this season Liverpool’s individual performances degraded and eroded those of the players around them. Now the opposite is happening. Players are making each other that bit better. This is to their credit and the credit of their manager.
This was an important game off the back of Tuesday. Tuesday needed to be backed up and now it has been. Nothing is sorted out. Nothing is perfect. Liverpool could have fallen to 1-1 or 1-2. But when their luck was there to be ridden they rode it. That’s good to see too. And now there is something which can plausibly be called a run. Hopefully Liverpool manage to ride that too.
We’ll leave it there this week, bit shorter than usual. I wasn’t able to be at Anfield this week. I have that thing which is going around. You know it. Not nice. But we can at least look forward to next weekend now, look upwards into Christmas. One foot in front of the other.
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Good piece Neil, and good performance by the Reds. Get well soon!