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Liverpool's manager stated firmly that the Egyptian forward and the Swedish striker will forge a strong understanding in attack following the Merseyside club suffered a stoppage-time loss at the hands of their London rivals, resulting in them give up first place to the Gunners.

Salah and Isak did not perform to expectations as the champions succumbed to their third consecutive setback in all matches, but the Dutch coach believes strongly that his star attackers will elevate their game once they become familiar with each other.

“With increased match time, the better their understanding becomes,” the head coach remarked. “You have to work to reach a high standard and then it’s challenging in football because you also play against strong opponents to sustain that performance. In other words is reliability. However, it's evident that we underwent transitions in the summer. New signings arrived at different moments.”

“Recently, there’s very little time on the training ground. Yet, we have to attempt to blend the fresh faces. Had the outcome was improved today with a draw or a win then we would have had a positive beginning to the season bearing in mind the various events in the summer for the team.”

The manager, who had to rejig his defensive unit after Ibrahima Konaté left the field with a leg issue in the latter period, stood by Salah’s erratic shooting.

“The positive aspect is that we brought him on several occasions in the situation he prefers,” the Dutchman said. “And that's where I want him because he’s shown in his time in football and since I’m here that in such situations he can score goals. He encountered many opportunities to repeat his usual feats. After all, he's mortal and it isn't the case that every chance comes his way is always a goal. We feel so because of his previous exploits in the previous campaign.”

Liverpool face their historic rivals after the FIFA window, and Slot is convinced that better finishing would have stopped his side from setbacks versus the Blues and the Eagles. “Across those matches we produced greater opportunities than the team we have faced but it's a fact that our goal tally was limited to one in each match and the rival side found the net on two occasions,” he explained.

Chelsea went ahead through the midfielder's early goal and it seemed they were heading for a tie when the Dutch forward leveled the score. But the London club rose to the sixth position when Estêvão Willian, appeared in the dying moments to score his first goal in domestic competition.

Estêvão’s intervention ignited raucous celebrations and resulted in the head coach being shown a second yellow card for his celebrations. Chelsea’s head coach must complete a dugout prohibition when his team play at Forest.

Willy Caballero had to handle post-match media duties. “He’s okay,” the assistant commented regarding Maresca. “He cannot be here because of the dismissal. He wanted me to praise the team because of the effort they have done today. We merited the victory because of the opportunities we generated.”