Salah strikes twice as Liverpool sink struggling Watford

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah kept up his scoring streak against Watford with a brace as the Premier League leaders sealed a 2-0 victory over the bottom club at Anfield on Saturday.

The win restored Liverpool's 11-point advantage over second-placed Leicester City, who host Norwich City later in the day, while Watford's fourth defeat in five games left new manager Nigel Pearson's side rooted to the bottom of the table.

Liverpool took the lead with a typically lethal counter-attack in the 38th minute as Sadio Mane collected the ball on the left and released Salah, who sprinted towards goal before cutting in and curling a shot home with his right foot.

Mane thought that he had doubled the lead five minutes after the break but the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) showed he was marginally offside when nodding the ball in from Xherdan Shaqiri's whipped cross.

Salah then scored his eighth league goal against Watford in five matches with a brilliant back-heeled effort in added time to secure the three points for Juergen Klopp's side.

The visitors had earlier missed the chance to go ahead when Abdoulaye Doucoure mishit his shot after Etienne Capoue escaped the offside trap to set him up.

Watford had scored only nine goals in the league coming into this game, and the reason for that became evident when poor finishing cost them yet again as an unchallenged Ismaila Sarr scuffed his shot after goalkeeper Alisson Becker parried Gerard Deulofeu's cross.