Mohamed Salah marked his eagerly awaited Liverpool return with an assist as Arne Slot’s side beat Brighton thanks to a Hugo Ekitike double.

Victory pushed the Reds up to sixth as they extended their unbeaten run to five games following a first win at Anfield since 4 November.

All eyes were on Salah, who returned to the squad after he was left out for Liverpool’s midweek Champions League win at Inter Milan following his extraordinary outburst last weekend at Leeds United.

Named on the bench by Slot, the Egyptian forward came on in the 26th minute after defender Joe Gomez was forced off with an injury and Dominik Szoboszlai slotted in at right-back.

Earlier, Gomez played his part in Liverpool’s opener as his header found Ekitike, who took one touch and volleyed past Bart Verbruggen after just 46 seconds – the quickest Premier League goal of the season so far.

Brighton had chances to level but failed to take them, with an outstretched leg from Alisson denying Diego Gomez, who was through on goal, before Gomez also missed an open goal after the break.

And Liverpool punished Fabian Hurzeler’s side for their wastefulness when Salah’s corner picked out an unmarked Ekitike at the back post and he headed his second on the hour mark.

It was the Frenchman's 10th goal of the season and second double in as many league games after the 3-3 draw at Leeds.

Salah’s assist took him to 277 goal involvements in 302 Premier League appearances for Liverpool – the most by any player for a single club in the competition, overtaking Wayne Rooney (276) at Manchester United.

He was Involved in several promising attacks, but missed a golden opportunity to score his 251st goal for the club when he blazed wide in injury time after being teed up by Federico Chiesa’s ball.

After the game, Salah applauded all four sides of Anfield, with the Egyptian set to report for national team duty on Monday before the Africa Cup of Nations. He could miss up to eight games if Egypt reach the final in Morocco.

With his future still uncertain, whether or not he plays for Liverpool again remains to be seen after Salah claimed in his interview at Elland Road that this could be his farewell game.

But, after a tumultuous week, Liverpool have back-to-back wins and clean sheets, while Brighton drop down to ninth place.

With both Salah and Alexander Isak starting on the bench, Ekitike remained Liverpool’s lead striker and showed once again why he has been one of their bright sparks in a difficult campaign.

His goalscoring Instincts were evident within seconds of the start – a thunderous finish past Verbruggen – and caused numerous problems for Brighton with his movement.

The 23-year-old could easily have scored a hat-trick in the first half as he blasted over from a Gomez ball, before firing wide when Florian Wirtz teed him up with a backheel.

His link-up, particularly with Wirtz, was promising and that chemistry is something Liverpool will want to see more of in the future.

Wirtz, though, was left frustrated again as he remains without a goal or assist in the Premier League.

Ekitike was at the heart of his side’s attack and, with his seventh attempt, he got his second goal from Salah’s corner.

Isak, the Premier League’s most expensive signing, has yet to fire like his fellow summer arrival, and didn’t do anything of note when he replaced Ekitike in the 78th minute.

And with Cody Gakpo sidelined with injury and Salah heading to the Afcon with Egypt, Ekitike will no doubt continue to have a huge part to play for Slot’s side.

Brighton started the afternoon ahead of Liverpool in the table, but this was an opportunity missed.

The Seagulls finished with an xG of 1.91 and will wonder how they didn’t score at Anfield.

Yankuba Minteh’s aimless cross-field clearance led to the opening goal, but he caused Liverpool plenty of problems at the other end.

He fired wide from close range before teeing up Gomez, who really should have done better when he was one-on-one against Alisson.

Gomez was fortunate too not to get a red card, instead of yellow, on the brink of half-time for a high boot on Wirtz and Liverpool would have been furious had he levelled after the break when Mats Wieffer set him up brilliantly.

Yet with the goal at his mercy, Gomez missed the target, while Brajan Gruda fired inches wide a minute later with a low drive.

In the end, Brighton finished with 13 attempts and 26 touches in the opposition box, but only forced Alisson to make the one save from Gomez.

Remarkably, Hurzeler’s side are winless in their last nine matches during the month of December.

What’s next for these two teams?

Liverpool are next in action on Saturday, 20 December, at Tottenham Hotspur (17:30 GMT).

Brighton welcome Sunderland to the Amex Stadium on the same day (15:00 GMT). (BBC)

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