Liverpool news: Mo Salah antics called out as Arne Slot offers Diogo Jota update

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has been called out for attempting to win a penalty on Sunday as Arne Slot remains unclear as to how serious Diogo Jota’s injury is

Liverpool will head to Germany for a Champions League encounter against RB Leipzig as they look to keep up their impressive start to the campaign.

The Reds remained at the Premier League summit after seeing off Chelsea at the weekend, owing to a Curtis Jones winner at Anfield. Arne Slot continues to impress early in his tenure and will look to ensure Liverpool keep up their perfect record in Europe.

Already they’ve seen off AC Milan and Bologna with the Bundesliga outfit their next assignment. They will also have one eye on Sunday’s heavyweight clash at Arsenal, which will be the biggest gauge yet of where the team are at.

Here’s the latest news from Anfield.

Salah’s penalty antics called out

Richard Keys has hammered Mohamed Salah for attempting to “con” the referee into giving Liverpool a penalty against Chelsea. The Egyptian opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Levi Colwill fouled Curtis Jones, but thought he should have been awarded a spot-kick earlier.

He believes that Chelsea were unfairly denied a spot-kick at the other end for a foul by Trent Alexander-Arnold on Jadon Sancho – and that Liverpool’s penalty for Colwill’s foul on Jones was only given because Brooks felt under pressure.

“Chelsea should’ve had a pen before Brooks eventually gave Liverpool one. Sancho’s foot was clearly trodden on Kop end. Pen. Why was there no review?” Keys wrote in his blog.

“Salah tried to con one out of Brooks before Curtis Jones did. You could hear Brooks’ mind working ‘damn, I’ve just turned one down l, I’ll have to give this’. Yes, there was contact but it was no more or less than there had been on Sancho. It certainly wasn’t enough to send Jones tumbling.”

Ex-Red convinced by title charge

Didi Hamann is adamant that Liverpool have a “great chance” of landing the Premier League title in their first year of the Slot era. Few tipped the Reds to challenge for the title following the departure of Jurgen Klopp, but they have enjoyed a fine start to life at Anfield and currently sit top of the table.

They saw off Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday, meaning they’ve won all but one of their league games this term. Despite it being early their ex-player has already seen enough of Liverpool to be convinced that a title push is on the way.

“I think Liverpool have shown they can win the Premier League, apart from the Nottingham Forest game, they’ve been brilliant,” Hamann told FlashScore. “The team functions well, everyone is happy and psychologically, and the win against Chelsea is huge. It was an even game but Liverpool came out on top, which is a massive sign of intent.

” Manchester City have lost Rodri, he can’t be replaced and Arsenal dropped points, I think Liverpool have a great chance to win the Premier League and go far in the Champions League.”

Slot coy on Jota injury

Slot was unable to give much of an update on Diogo Jota, who was forced off injured in Sunday’s win over Chelsea. The Portugal forward has been in impressive form to begin the season but now faces a spell out – although his manager didn’t know for how long.

“He [Jota] got a knock [on Sunday], like we all saw, when he was trying to go to goal, brought down. That was not the biggest problem but I think the other player fell onto him and that hurt him that much that he couldn’t continue to play and he couldn’t come with us for now. It’s difficult to judge at this moment of time to see how long that’s going to take.”

He also added: “It’s bruised, so we have to see how long it is going to take.”

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