THAT NICE-GUY smile was back on Arne Slot’s face even if it was only a faint one.
For while normal service had not exactly been resumed, a seven-point lead at the top of the Prem was re-established.
There were ragged nerves around most of Anfield and plenty of them by the end after Matheus Cunha delivered a stunning strike to cut the first-half deficit once Wolves decided to go for it.
But a win was a win for Slot and he and his team needed it badly.
And this time there was no scowl and hard words at the final whistle as there had been towards referee Michael Oliver from him and Sipke Hulshoff in the dark moments after Wednesday’s Merseyside derby.
But at the end of a turbulent week that threatened to destabilise a previously imperious march towards success in his first season in English football Slot and his Liverpool players did get a victory over the line.
Diaz’s opener wasn’t the prettiest and Salah delivered what turned out to be the clincher from the spot.
But if teams do have to win ugly to deliver a title, then this was the perfect example of that.
For by the end, Slot’s players were hanging on desperately.
Slot had warned that “nothing good ever comes of losing a football game” after the shocking 1-0 FA Cup exit to Championship bottom club Plymouth Argyle seven days ago.
Nobody thought he might be talking about himself in the build-up to the last–ever clash with Everton at Goodison Park that ended with James Tarkowski’s 98th-minute equaliser, a punch-up between players and that furious dust-up with Oliver.
True enough, he had already served a one-game touchline ban for picking up three yellow cards but that was merely the kind of totting-up slap on the wrist that can go the way of plenty of under-pressure Prem managers.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”New footage of Arne Slot’s interaction with Michael Oliver emerges as mystery surrounds Liverpool manager’s red card ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6368751967112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Wednesday night’s behaviour was altogether different – an insight into what has really been going on behind the quiet smile that he has presented to the world, one that said he was just happy to be here.
He lost it, and admitted so, saying “emotions got the better of me”, and the mask slipped in the process.
And for a long while in the second half, it looked like his team had lost it too.
Slot declared in the moments before kick-off that he wanted his side to re-channel the fury they felt after the Everton clash towards getting back on track.
He stressed: “I hope we use the anger we felt in the dressing room – use that anger in a positive way when we start this game.”
At the start he got exactly the response he was looking for, a corner won in ten seconds, the opener in the 15th minute.
Wolves had worked hard on a five-man low block plan to frustrate the leaders but Diogo Jota, starting his first league game in four months, did for that idea.
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He turned fast on the halfway line, and fed Diaz who in turn found Salah lurking, as ever, on the right.
The Egyptian king’s touch was anything but majestic, his attempted pass a shocker, but Diaz followed up, pushed past Toti Gomes, and bundled the ball over the line with his belly.
Cue celebrations and relief from Diaz and his team-mates after the Colombian winger’s first goal at Anfield since September but on the touchline Slot was back in Mr Cool mode, high–fiving his staff.
In fact opposite number Vitor Pereira found himself in Simon Hooper’s bad books, picking up his second yellow in successive games for getting far too agitated for the referee’s liking.
The Portuguese was spitting feathers by 37th minute after Salah had taken his 50th penalty for Liverpool, making it a 42nd success.
Referee Hooper pointed to the spot immediately after Diaz was unquestionably sent to the deck by Jose Sa’s dive, catching him on the ankle.
Luis Díaz scores his first goal of 2025 for Liverpool! ⚡️🔴 pic.twitter.com/ybeNNYjP01
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 16, 2025
Mo Salah converts from the spot to double the Liverpool lead! 🎯 pic.twitter.com/OsP18APCTZ
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 16, 2025
What a finish from Matheus Cunha! 🤩🟠 pic.twitter.com/bigtattFgw
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 16, 2025
The problem for Pereira and his team was that Diaz first shoved his way past Emmanuel Agbadou to get to the ball and their complaints were valid even if VAR John Brooks ignored them.
Hooper was much more lenient on Ibrahima Konate, however, after the central defender’s brain–dead aerial lunge on Cunha that should have brought him his second booking of the game.
Agbadou got away with one, too, having been cautioned for a yellow card gesture towards Konate, he then took out Diaz on the halfway line and somehow Hooper ignored that challenge too.
Unsurprisingly Jarell Quansah replaced Konate after the break but Agbadou was left to walk the disciplinary tightrope
And after Salah had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside, the Wolves defender had the satisfaction of seeing a VAR verdict go in his favour in the 57th minute when Hooper had pointed to the spot.
Agbadou fell for an outright dive by Jota as the central defender dived in but the review showed that the January signing had made no contact on the striker – and yet the Liverpool man walked Scot-free.
After their failed efforts to keep Liverpool’s attack at bay, Pereira had taken the leash off and Alisson made a desperate one–on–one block on newly arrived midfielder Marshall Munetsi.
But the goalkeeper had no chance at stopping Cunha’s blistering third goal in three games, a 67th-minute left-footer rasped into the bottom corner.
It left Slot fretting all the way to the end before that smile, watery though it was, broke out.
