Premier League, Liverpool beat Leeds United: List of records broken
Liverpool overcame Championship winners Leeds United 4-3 in gameweek 1 of the Premier League 2020-21 season. The Reds, who won a maiden Premier League trophy in 2019-20, saw talisman Mohamed Salah score a hat-trick in an entertaining thriller at Anfield. Earlier, Arsenal thrashed Fulham 3-0, whereas, Crystal Palace beat Southampton 1-0. Here we present the list of records broken.
Mohamed Salah opened the scoring early on with a penalty. Leeds mid-fielder Jack Harrison took the ball down over on the left. He beat both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez, before hammering the ball past Alisson. Virgil van Dijk gave Liverpool the lead, before Patrick Bamford equalized. Salah scored again, before Mateusz Klich equalized. Salah netted the winner after scoring another penalty late on.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their opening league fixture over the past eight seasons now. The Reds are unbeaten in a club record 60 Premier League matches at Anfield (W49, D11). Mohamed Salah became only the second player to score for a team in the opening fixture in four consecutive EPL seasons. Salah has scored 52 goals in 63 home games in the Premier League.
1988 - Mohamed Salah is the first @LFC player to score a hat-trick on MD1 of a league season since John Aldridge against Charlton in 1988-89. Magic. pic.twitter.com/pI1YzYcywf
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) September 12, 2020
As per Opta, Virgil van Dijk has scored his 10th Premier League goal for Liverpool - more than any other centre back in the competition since his league debut for the Reds in January 2018. Meanwhile, each of his last nine such goals have come from headers. Van Dijk has made two errors leading directly to a goal in his last four EPL games.
This is only the second ever Premier League match played on the opening matchday of a season to see five goals scored before half-time. Jack Harrison is the first player to score on his Premier League debut for Leeds since Nick Barmby in August 2002 versus Manchester City, and the first to do so in an away game since Alan Smith (1998).
Arsenal, who beat Fulham 3-0 away from home, have now won their first game in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2009-10. Meanwhile, Fulham have lost their first game in three consecutive league seasons. Arsenal talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the first player to score on the opening weekend in consecutive Premier League seasons for Arsenal since Robert Pires in 2003-04 and 2004-05.
Crystal Palace beat Southampton 1-0 as Wilfried Zaha scored the only goal of the match. Zaha netted the 50th league goal in his career, with 37 of those coming in the Premier League and 13 in the Championship. He has been directly involved in 60 league goals for Palace. Andros Townsend registered his fourth career assist against Southampton in the Premier League.
