Liverpool vs Huddersfield result: Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah at the double as Reds return to the top

Liverpool 5-0 Huddersfield: Jurgen Klopp’s side took the lead after just 15 seconds and never looked back

Imagine taking four points from the last 66 available. Imagine the game plan against Liverpool, at Anfield. Keep it tight, no silly mistakes in the opening ten minutes – clear your lines where necessary and try to encourage frustration inside a stadium where for many supporters, results in the next fortnight could define a generation of feelings and inspire extreme emotions.

We did not learn what Huddersfield’s plan actually was. Including the kick-off, there were three touches until Jon Gorenc Stankovic received possession on the edge of his box. He thought he had time on the ball, but Liverpool’s players were already smelling the cold nervous sweat dripping from this Slovenian centre back playing in midfield.

Naby Keita was on to him. Keita’s touch from his flabby pass to Erik Durm instead went to Mohamed Salah. Salah’s service to Keita under baked and Keita’s finish was hardly clean. But it was 1-0 and Huddersfield’s resistance had lasted an obscene 15 seconds.

It would have been the perfect start for any team fortunate enough to take the advantage but particularly for the title chasers who are not giving up on toppling Manchester City. This result switched the focus and pressure back on their rivals, who go to Burnley on Sunday knowing anything but a victory will put Liverpool just two wins away from their first championship in 29 years.

A perfect start became a perfect evening. Though Roberto Firmino was unavailable having tweaked his groin in training on Thursday, he should be back for the trip to Barcelona on Wednesday. Liverpool’s easy passage featured a return for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain whose introduction as a substitute was his first appearance in one year and two days since he sustained serious knee ligament damage against AS Roma.

The Kop was in full voice and loving their Friday night on the town. If it’s City’s title from here, it certainly doesn’t feel like it yet.

After the second quickest goal in Liverpool’s history, only behind Paul Walsh’s 14-second effort on his debut against West Ham in 1984, the wind played some havoc. Liverpool’s passes were not accurate initially and Huddersfield had a little bit of a go. Anfield’s main stand regulars were telling Liverpool’s players to up their game. Andy Robertson was close-by and maybe his listened. Liverpool’s lead soon extended when his cross was headed past Jonas Lossl emphatically by Sadio Mane. It was Robertson’s twelfth assist of a brilliant season. Who can name a better full back in Europe?

Well, maybe he too belongs to Liverpool. For the rest of the first half, Huddersfield continued to try and play out from the back even though their defenders did not seem comfortable with the idea. For the rest of the half, each time Liverpool streamed forward they looked like scoring. It became 3-0 when Trent Alexander-Arnold created his eighth goal of the season from right back – meaning he and Robertson combined now had twenty assists between them in the league, though Robertson would add another to the tally before the end.

Huddersfield were behind after just 15 seconds (Reuters) (Action Images via Reuters)

Salah finished this one with a lob and that meant he equalled another Liverpool record. It was his hundredth appearance for Liverpool and his 68th goal – only Roger Hunt and Sam Raybould more than a century ago have been as quick as that.

From this position, Liverpool needed only to avoid injuries. Virgil van Dijk had ran the game from centre back like a playmaker. His passes were short, his passes were long; they were always accurate and they put Liverpool constantly on the front foot. No wonder Ronald Koeman identifies with him. When van Dijk, however, fell to the ground and stayed there for 25 seconds, anxiety enveloped Anfield and the atmosphere fell flat. He would rise again swiftly, like the Undertaker at the Royal Rumble or Tyson Fury when it seemed he was knocked out before he recovered against Deontay Wilder. There is a sense of the immortal with van Dijk.

Salah and Mane celebrate (Getty)

The conditions, quite frankly, were awful. Storm Hannah was approaching Merseyside, scheduled to land at 2am. Jordan Henderson is smart, though. He knew that his cross to Mane would curl back towards the Senegalese and it did. From there, he still had much to do but the header that followed – his second of the game – was outrageously good. Four-nil.

An interesting competition is developing between Mane and Salah, who are now both on 20 league goals for the season and this is only the second time in 50 years two Liverpool players have reached that figure in the same campaign. Mane should have had a hat-trick with another header which clanked against the post. Instead, Salah made it five with his second after another marauding run from Robertson. It was at that point, Jurgen Klopp issued Salah with an instruction, no more sprinting. He will have the wide, open spaces of the Camp Nou to run into on Wednesday after all.