OPTA ANALYST
Arne Slot’s side extended their lead at the top of the table with a hard-fought win at St Mary’s. Find the best facts and Opta data from the game with our Southampton vs Liverpool stats page.
Liverpool survived an almighty scare against Southampton, the team bottom of the table, before securing a win that extends their lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points.
Following Manchester City’s defeat to Tottenham on Saturday, Liverpool had the chance to take advantage at St Mary’s a day later, and they just about managed to do so but they didn’t have it all their own way.
The game began in a predictable pattern, as Liverpool dominated proceedings and created the bulk of the chances, but it was through a massive helping hand from their opponents, who are too often caught playing out from the back, that they took the lead.
It was a catalogue of errors from the hosts that led to Dominik Szoboszlai opening the scoring, with a goal means no team has scored more goals following high turnovers in the Premier League this season than Liverpool (four), while only Brentford (six) have conceded more such goals than Southampton (five).
It then looked like Liverpool would go on to secure the comfortable win most expected them to. This was the 40th occasion that top had faced bottom in the Premier League era, but only four of those games have ended in a shock win for the last-placed side.
Southampton did make it difficult for Liverpool, though, and at one point looked like they might add to that list. They equalised through Adam Armstrong from the follow-up from his own missed penalty, and then took a surprise lead when Mateus Fernandes slotted home 10 minutes into the second half.
