Salah double sends Liverpool 8 points clear in Premier League as United draws first game with Amorim

It has been more than 30 years since a team held as big a lead as Liverpool after 12 rounds of the Premier League.

Not that Arne Slot is getting too excited about an eight-point advantage before even hitting December.

“It’s nice to have this position,” the Liverpool manager said Sunday after Mohamed Salah's second-half double inspired a 3-2 come-from-behind win at Southampton, “but we are definitely not getting carried away.”

Only Manchester United's class of 1993-94 — under Alex Ferguson — has had a larger lead than Slot's Liverpool at this stage of a Premier League campaign. The title stayed at Old Trafford that season.

It's those kind of glory days that Ruben Amorim is trying to recreate after taking charge of United and the Portuguese coach's tenure could hardly have gotten off to a better start.

Only 81 seconds had elapsed before United marked Amorim's first game at the helm with a goal from Marcus Rashford at Ipswich.

United couldn't hold out and a 1-1 draw against a team destined to be battling against relegation underlined the scale of Amorim's task to turn around the fortunes of a fallen giant in English soccer.

“It was really hard for them," Amorim said of United's players. "They were thinking what to do — it was not fluid, which is normal after just two training sessions, but they tried hard.

“They have so much space to improve. But after a draw, you never feel the good things.”

Salah moved onto 10 goals for the league campaign, second behind Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (12), and Liverpool now has 10 victories in 12 league games.

It's a start to the season Slot can only have dreamed about after joining from Feyenoord for the tough job of replacing Jurgen Klopp.

Helping Liverpool is the alarming form of defending champion Man City, whose stunning third straight league loss — 4-0 at home to Tottenham on Saturday — was a fifth defeat in a row in all competitions.

Second-place City heads to Liverpool next weekend and could be 11 points behind the Reds after that match at Anfield.

Liverpool was trailing 2-1 at Southampton when Salah equalized in the 65th after running onto a long pass forward from Ryan Gravenberch. The Egypt forward then converted a penalty in the 83rd after a handball by Yukinari Sugawara and nearly had a hat trick at St. Mary’s stadium — only to hit the post in the final minutes.

Liverpool’s win owed as much to the defensive inadequacies of last-place Southampton as any excellence from Slot’s visitors.

The Reds were gifted the opening goal, though Dominik Szoboszlai’s finish was excellent after he collected a weak clearance from Flynn Downes and curled a shot in off the post. It started after Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy rolled the ball out to a player who was swarmed by Liverpool’s Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez at the edge of the area.

Southampton fought back, with Adam Armstrong converting a penalty in the 42nd minute after Andy Robertson tripped Tyler Dibling just inside the area and then setting up Mateus Fernandes to stroke home in the 56th.

Salah came to Liverpool’s rescue, though, and again there will be question marks about McCarthy, who raced out of his goal to take Gravenberch’s pass only to be beaten to the ball by Salah.

Salah was able to run with the ball into an empty net and was celebrating again after converting the match-clinching penalty past McCarthy.

“It is a great feeling but it is the beginning of the season,” Szoboszlai said of Liverpool’s big lead. “We just need to continue and not think where the other teams are.”

For his first match with United, Amorim started with a 3-4-3 formation — picking Rashford as the sole striker and Amad Diallo, a winger, as one of the wing backs.

Those big calls were quickly vindicated.

Off United's first attack, Diallo was sent clear down the right and crossed for Rashford to poke home from close range.

Omari Hutchinson equalized in the 43rd minute for Ipswich, which is likely to be battling relegation this season but was more than a match for United.

It highlighted the challenge facing Amorim to bring United a first title since 2013.

That surely won't happen this season — United is in 12th place, already 15 points behind Liverpool.

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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer