Brighton came from behind against Liverpool to stun the Premier League champions at the Amex Stadium and hand them only their fourth league defeat of the season.
Harvey Elliott put Liverpool ahead from close range in the ninth minute after a lovely move involving Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Conor Bradley, and Szoboszlai rattled a cross home on the stroke of half-time (his face told the story) after Yasin Ayari had pulled a goal back for the home team.
Liverpool were without their defensive leader in Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson, and ended the game with Wataru Endo at right-back. If the title had not already been won, Arne Slot would not have picked the defence he did.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was kept on the bench as the champions surrendered their advantage in the second half, with two substitutes, Kaoru Mitoma and Jack Hinshelwood, scoring the goals to seal a superb win for Fabian Hurzeler’s side.
The draw lifts Brighton up to eighth in the Premier League table, which could be enough to qualify them for European football next season.
Andy Jones analyses the talking points from the Amex Stadium…
Why Liverpool’s first goal will have delighted Slot
As part of his preparations for next season, Slot has been using the final four games of the season to experiment with personnel and tactics.
With Alexander-Arnold leaving the club this summer, Bradley was once again selected at right-back, while Elliott was given only his second Premier League start of the season in the No 10 role. Szoboszlai, who has been first choice in that position, dropped into the No 8 role which he has rarely played this season.
It will have been to their head coach’s delight that all three were key contributors to Liverpool’s opening goal.
It began with Szoboszlai arrowing a cross-field pass over to Mohamed Salah to switch the attack. Salah, who will remain crucial to Slot’s plan next season after signing a new two-year deal last month, cushioned the ball into the path of the onrushing Bradley.
Bradley, who himself penned a new long-term contract last week, is set to challenge soon-to-be new arrival Jeremie Frimpong for the right-back spot as the move for the Bayer Leverkusen defender nears completion.
The Northern Ireland international demonstrated his attacking qualities by nutmegging Simon Adingra and then breezing past Adam Webster to get to the byline.
His pullback was tucked away by Elliott, who will no doubt have been thinking about what his future may hold after The Athletic reported that Liverpool have contacted Bayer Leverkusen attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz’s representatives.
Elliott has spoken publicly about his determination to force his way into Slot’s plans and his goal and performance was another good step in the right direction.
Will Chiesa be a Liverpool player next season?
He hadn’t touched the ball yet but already Federico Chiesa’s song — to the tune of Sway, by Dean Martin — had been bellowed by the Liverpool supporters for the first five minutes of the match.
His new chant has gained traction in recent weeks despite the Italian making only 14 appearances this season and being relatively anonymous since his £10.5million move from Juventus.
His substitute appearance against Chelsea earlier this month took him to five in the Premier League, qualifying him for a medal, and Slot went one step further against Brighton by naming him in his starting XI for the first time in the league.
(GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
There is plenty of speculation about the future of the summer signing after failing to make an impact this season due to illness, injury and the performance of other attackers.
During the week, Slot declared that Chiesa was good enough to play for Liverpool, but his wide options of Salah, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz had all enjoyed excellent seasons – demonstrated further by the fact Slot picked him as his No 9 in this game.
It was unlikely he was going to produce a masterclass with little rhythm and his first real involvement of the game almost summed up his performance. He lost his first battle with Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke, losing possession near his own area, but then seconds later he fired an inch-perfect ball over the top of the Brighton defence into the path of Salah.
The effort and endeavour out of possession was there, although understandably he tired as the game went on, and in possession there were good moments as he linked play well when Liverpool were on the attack, but also clear signs of rust including miscontrolling a ball near the touchline that rolled under his foot and went out of play under little pressure.
It remains to be seen if he is a Liverpool player at the start of next season, and this performance is unlikely to alter Slot’s judgment on him – but with the title wrapped up, it was good to see him given his first Premier League start.
And can Salah break the goal involvements record?
Salah has been breaking records for fun this season, including the most goal involvements of any player in a single 38-game Premier League season (46).
The 32-year-old is never satisfied and is always looking for the next individual record he can break, with his sights set on beating the record for most goal involvements in any Premier League season of 47 which is jointly held by Alan Shearer (1994-95) and Andy Cole (1993-94).
At one point in the season it looked certain he would break it, but only one goal and one assist in his last seven matches ahead of the Brighton game made it look like it could go down to the wire.
So, when Gakpo surged past Mats Wieffer and put the ball on a plate for Salah four yards out the outcome seemed inevitable. It was practically an open goal, but the Egypt international showed that he is human and somehow put it wide.
Instead of the ball hitting the back of the net it was Salah himself, wearing a look of complete disbelief.
What a MISS from Mo Salah?! 😰 pic.twitter.com/5MaxW36SzH
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 19, 2025
Not long after another great chance fell to him after the ball fell to him in the box. Again though he was denied from close range, this time by Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
While Slot has rotated most of his first team, Salah has started all three of the games since the title was won.
In an interview for Sky Sports with Gary Neville last week, Salah remained confident that he would break the record – but after a match without a goal or an assist he only has one game remaining to score or create two goals…
What did Slot say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Liverpool?
Sunday, May 25: Crystal Palace (Home), Premier League, 4pm UK, 11am ET
(Julian Finney/Getty Images)