Mohamed Salah spot on as Steven Gerrard loses on Liverpool return with Aston Villa

Liverpool can cherish their history safe in the knowledge their present beat their past. Steven Gerrard’s first return to Anfield ended in disappointment courtesy of Mohamed Salah. The player Gerrard nominated as the best in the world now condemned perhaps the greatest Liverpool have ever had to defeat.

For Liverpool, a seventh straight win in all competitions maintained their title challenge. There were points when it seemed Gerrard’s Aston Villa might become the first team since Real Madrid in April to stop Liverpool from scoring. Then Salah intervened. He has inherited Gerrard’s old mantle as the penalty taker and converted a spot kick he won.

It was a 21st goal of the season for Salah, a 20th in as many games and a 14th consecutive league match in which he had either scored or assisted. He is now only 40 behind Gerrard’s total of 186 Liverpool goals and is on course to pass him next season.

The more immediate significance was that he proved again he can be the difference-maker when Liverpool’s persistence was rewarded on a day of 19 shots and a solitary goal. This was a hard-fought win, one of their most mundane scorelines of the season but the sort of victory that can lead to glory.

For Gerrard, this was only a second defeat with Villa and they were to Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. His has been a terrific start. His name rang around Anfield at the end, but not beforehand. The game was too close, the prospect Villa might get a point too real.

“There is one person it was not easy for and that is Stevie,” said Klopp. But Gerrard had felt focused and determined, not caught up in the romance of it all. “There is a lot of emotion for me and my family,” he said. “I had to try and deal with it the best I could. I am respectful and thankful for the reception I got. I gave many years to this club.”

Before kick-off, he had hugged Klopp but was careful to acknowledge the Villa fans before he did anything else. After the final whistle, he applauded the visiting Midlanders before his old public.

In between, his side made life difficult for Liverpool. “For 75 minutes we were outstanding, clearly the better side,” said Klopp. “We played incredible football.” But the goal felt elusive. Matty Cash had three reprieves, when seemed to drag Sadio Mane down in the box and when he deflected Andy Robertson’s header and Emi Martinez had to react smartly to save at his near post.

Martinez made some terrific stops. He parried Salah’s low shot but the best came when Virgil van Dijk rose highest to meet Robertson’s corner and the Argentinian clawed his header away. Liverpool’s set-piece threat was shown when Joel Matip looped a header against the bar.

Robertson was rampant, granted room on the left by Villa’s narrow tactics but exploiting it adroitly. Mane was bright, too, but with Divock Origi injured and Roberto Firmino not yet able to return, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain operated as the false nine. The stand-in striker whipped a shot over the bar but found it hard to adjust to a role few have perfected. The experiment was aborted within an hour. Diogo Jota, only deemed fit enough to be a substitute, was summoned.

And Salah assumed responsibility for winning the game. Pressure told in an increasingly overworked defence. Tyrone Mings tugged Salah down. The Egyptian scored the spot kick. “A soft penalty because if you watch it properly, Tyrone’s been fouled first,” Gerrard said. Jota should have sealed victory in added time, but blazed over.

Villa could rue a couple of moments when Alisson was unusually nervy, charging off his line as Ollie Watkins headed the ball past him, but too wide to shoot, and cannoning a clearance into Joel Matip and perhaps fouling Danny Ings. “There were two penalty incidents in the game,” rued Gerrard. “Liverpool got theirs.”