VITALITY STADIUM, BOURNEMOUTH // Mohamed Salah as number 11 scored two against Bournemouth. Arsenal faces Manchester City tomorrow.

For Salah's first, There was minimal contact on , but referee Darren England — in the middle for a game for the first time since his VAR error prevented from scoring a legitimate goal for the Reds at Spurs last season — pointed to the spot. Salah did the rest and made no mistake.

The same player netted in the second half too, curling a brilliant effort past Kepa and into the top corner. With 15 minutes to play, he sealed the result in a very tight match where had threatened.

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Mohamed Salah moved level with and then overtook Frank Lampard in the all-time goalscoring records and made no mistake from the penalty spot with his strike. In a tightly fought and well-contested game, though, there were few who stood out above the rest. Instead, this was a battling performance.

Bournemouth showed intensity and made the game exactly how Liverpool would have imagined in the build-up to it. But when things are tight, the result comes down to fine margins. Salah, world-class as ever, was the man who stepped up.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was given the unenviable task of slowing down Antoine Semenyo and Justin Kluivert down his side of the field and the pair gave him a tough time. On the ball, he wasn't as effective as can be either.

Aside from the right-back, Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez would have been disappointed to miss out on the matchday squad, with neither selected to travel with Slot having a full roster to pick from. That, though, shows the strength of Liverpool.

Alisson Becker (7). His defense did well to block a lot of Bournemouth shots. The Brazilian made one low save early in the first half and a good punch from a corner. Solid, but not called on as much as he might have been given the positions Bournemouth got into.

Trent Alexander-Arnold (5). Started by giving the ball away within seconds which led to a Bournemouth chance and struggled with the speed and trickery of the impressive Antoine Semenyo, who smashed a shot off the woodwork in the first half. He improved a few minutes before going off injured bu didn't make much of an attacking impact.

Ibrahima Konate (7). Front-footed and did well to keep Dango Ouattara contained in the main, including making a good block from one of his shots early in the second half. Bournemouth (unsuccessfully) targeted him when he had possession in the Anfield game, but he showed he is good at passing here too with some nice balls into teammates through the lines.

Virgil van Dijk (7). Typically strong and powerful and he needed to be at times. Liverpool went longer than usual rather than taking any risks with the ball in its own half and so his range of passing wasn't used quite as often.

Andy Robertson (7). Up against a player in Milos Kerkez who has been touted as his replacement, this was a steady performance from the Liverpool number 26. There was nothing particularly spectacular but he dealt quite well with David Brooks and Ryan Christie down that side. He was a leader.

Ryan Gravenberch (8). There was very little space in the midfield area with Bournemouth pressing high, so he wasn't as involved in the play as he sometimes is. When he was, though, he was excellent. A solid performance and did his job defensively against a really dangerous outfit.

Alexis Mac Allister (7). Created a couple of good chances in the first half with angled passes into the box. Popped up all across the field with lots of good movements giving him space to work in. A very clever midfielder.

Dominik Szoboszlai (7). He fell over the ball at one stage and wasted a couple of chances to shoot from the edge of the box, but also helped create a couple of chances with nice balls into wide areas. Mixed, but really useful with matching the Bournemouth intensity.

Mohamed Salah (8). Kept his cool to open the scoring from the penalty spot and made the telling difference sec.ond half too. Got the better of Milos Kerkez a couple of times but there was not much space for him to work with and he wasn't quick enough to burst away from the Hungarian many times.

Luis Diaz (6). Struggled to get into the game with Illia Zubarnyi winning everything in the air. The Bournemouth press meant Liverpool going long more than usual, which doesn't really suit him.

Cody Gakpo (7). He was desperate to be involved against his former club, PSV, midweek, but came off early with this game in mind. He didn't lack sharpness, even if Bournemouth felt he went down pretty easily for the penalty.

Darwin Nunez (6). Won a couple of headers, which Diaz had struggled with. Got through plenty of running but didn't have much in the way of a route to goal.

Conor Bradley (7). On for the injured Alexander-Arnold, he needed to be switched on to the Bournemouth threat down that flank. It wasn't an easy game to be thrown into but he did well. Wataru Endo also came on, but too late to earn a rating.