As a smile spread slowly across his face, Mohamed Salah kissed the club crest adorning his rain sodden red shirt. The Egyptian’s ninth goal in seven Premier League games, and second on the night, had not merely reinforced Liverpool’s title challenge but strengthened the case for offering a forward who, right now, could probably walk unaided on the River Nile, a lucrative contract extension at Anfield.
Not that Salah was the only man improving his negotiating position as Fabian Schär’s late equaliser ensured one of the games of the season, if not the decade, ended with honours even as Arne Slot’s league leaders’ winning run was finally halted.
Much of that was down to Newcastle’s outstanding Alexander Isak. For much of an enthralling evening the Sweden striker eclipsed even Salah, scoring a fine opener and creating Newcastle’s second as Eddie Howe’s players remembered that they, too, can play a bit.
Newcastle began as if incessant repetitions of Howe’s mantra – “intensity is our identity” – were echoing in their ears. It meant that, with his Liverpool teammates struggling to recapture their familiar fluidity and fluency, Caoimhin Kelleher was quickly called to arms, saving smartly from Sandro Tonali following Anthony Gordon’s fine left wing delivery.
After a disappointing defeat to West Ham here and an underwhelming draw at Crystal Palace Newcastle had raised their game in the manner that a side invariably at their best in counterattacking mode tend to do whenever high calibre opposition visit Tyneside.
On an evening when Trent Alexander-Arnold initially rested his legs on the visiting bench, Jarell Quansah certainly looked a little uneasy as Gordon appeared on a mission to show Slot precisely why he was the subject of an ultimately collapsed transfer to Anfield last summer.
Not that Salah looked remotely daunted as he engaged in an intriguing duel with Lewis Hall. The former’s blocked cross prefaced Alexis Mac Allister unleashing a half volley that drew an impressive save from Nick Pope. When Mac Allister’s next strike grazed a post Howe’s touchline agitation amplified but then Isak cleverly played Jacob Murphy in and the recalled right winger’s shot also brushed an upright.
Like Salah, Isak wants a new club contract but until Wednesday night he underwhelmed this season.
All that changed in the blur of movement embracing Isak’s collection of Bruno Guimarães’s reverse pass and ensuing imperious swivel that saw Virgil van Dijk turned in a style Slot’s key centre half is unaccustomed to. All that remained was for Isak to defy Kelleher courtesy of a viciously dipping and swerving shot dispatched into the top corner from around 20 yards.
Suddenly Kelleher seemed to be standing between Newcastle and a bigger lead as his saves repeatedly spared teammate’s discomfort. If Gordon really should have beaten him after dodging Joe Gomez with consummate ease no one could really argue that the injured Alisson’s stand-in did not deserve a touch of good fortune.
By now it was easy to understand why Slot had warned his players that Newcastle at St James’ Park represented a tougher task than going toe to toe with Real Madrid or Manchester City.
Not for the first time this season though a hitherto deceptively quiet Salah found a solution to his manager’s problems. The second half was five minutes old when, latching onto a long ball over the top, he outwitted Hall and crossed low and accurately with the outside of a foot for the onrushing Curtis Jones to lash the ball, first time, beyond Pope’s grasp.
After that Newcastle lived dangerously with Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez both inches away from scoring.
Yet as the rain intensified Guimarães and Isak combined to create the platform for Gordon to finally score thanks to a right foot shot that, for once, Kelleher had no answer to.
For a moment it looked as if he might have taken one touch too many but Isak’s gorgeous through pass demanded conversion and, with Gomez again counted, this time, the boyhood Liverpool fan pulled it off.
When Isak had another “goal” disallowed for offside, Liverpool heeded the warning and Alexander-Arnold, newly liberated from the bench reminded everyone of his extraordinary chemistry with Salah by crossing from the right for the latter’s slick finish to wipe the smile off Howe’s face.
When Alexander-Arnold once again cued Salah up to swivel sharply and shoot Liverpool into the lead it seemed game over but Schär’s connection with the fall out from a free-kick and a rare Kelleher error secured Newcastle a deserved point.
