Mohamed Salah on spot as Liverpool hold off Wolves fightback to reopen gap

A rare troubled week for Arne Slot ended in the release of victory and the restoration of Liverpool’s seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League, yet concern lingers. The league leaders were given a serious fright by Wolves and there were nerves throughout the Liverpool team, and crowd, as a struggling opponent was kept at bay. A big week beckons. Liverpool looked in a commanding position after Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah, with his 28th goal of the season, had established a two-goal interval lead. But Matheus Cunha’s fine consolation sparked a nervous finale.

Wolves got nothing from Simon Hooper in the first half other than a heightened belief that Premier League officials have it in for them. Matt Doherty and Vitor Pereira were booked in quick succession for complaining about the referee’s performance, and the away support made their feelings clear throughout. It was understandable. It was also unavoidable, however, that Wolves were culpable for the mess they found themselves in by half-time.

Liverpool won a corner straight from kick-off but the immediate sense of the team venting their derby frustrations was misplaced. Slot’s side were erratic in possession and struggled to find their rhythm. The visitors’ five-man defence made an assured start. And the first time it was out of shape, Liverpool pounced. Wolves were caught by a devastating counterattack after their first genuine attack of note. Diogo Jota turned Andre and Doherty superbly to releaseDíaz down the left. Díaz centred to Salah, whose first time return looped off Toti and dropped into the six yard box. Diaz, having continued his run into the area, reacted sharper than José Sá and bundled the ball past the goalkeeper with his chest.

A similar move almost resulted in a second Liverpool goal for Jota but Emmanuel Agbadou and Toti threw themselves in the way of the striker’s shot, the former taking an accidental blow to the head in the process. Sá also denied Jota with a near post save after Dominik Szoboszlai, Díaz and Andy Robertson had combined well to open up the Wolves’ right flank yet again. It was that route that produced the award of a clear but needless penalty to Liverpool.

Alexis Mac Allister played a hopeful ball down the left that turned into a promising one when Agbadou completely missed his attempted clearance. The Wolves central defender had received a slight nudge in the back from Díaz, who ran through and took a heavy first touch before being clipped by Sá. The Wolves keeper over-committed when there was little need to. Díaz’s touch was going out of play. VAR checked Díaz’s nudge on Agbadou before confirming Hooper’s decision to award a spot-kick. Salah floated his 50th Liverpool penalty down the centre of Sá’s goal for his 42nd successful conversion.

Wolves had played brave, enterprising football at times with Cunha and Pablo Sarabia to the fore. But they rarely had a presence in the Liverpool penalty area to capitalise on good approach work. That all changed when Pereira introduced Marshall Munetsi and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde in a double half-time substitution. Anfield was gradually reduced to a panic-stricken state. Sign up to Football Daily. Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football.

after newsletter promotion. Munetsi could have scored five minutes into his Premier League debut when Bellegarde’s neat flick put him one-on-one with Alisson. Slot had replaced Ibrahima Konaté with Jarell Quansah at the break with the France international in danger of collecting a second yellow card and Liverpool’s new central defence was immediately exposed. Their goalkeeper saved them, however, racing out to block Munetsi’s shot with his face.

Salah had a fine goal disallowed for offside before Liverpool were awarded a second penalty when Ryan Gravenberch released Jota in the box and the Portugal international was sent tumbling by Agbadou’s lunge. Or so it appeared to the naked eye. VAR found the defender had made no contact with Jota, who cut inside the challenge and dived. Hooper overturned his initial penalty award after being sent to the pitch-side monitor but did not book Jota.

Cunha increased the anxiety inside Anfield with a superb finish from 22 yards. Receiving another smart flick from Bellegarde, the Wolves number ten turned away from Gravenberch and curled an unstoppable shot into the right hand corner of Alisson’s net. Liverpool nerves were evident and Wolves were close to capitalising when substitute Tommy Doyle crossed low for Munetsi, only for Quansah to intervene with a vital tackle in front of his own goal.