Mohamed Salah was on the scoresheet once again as Liverpool defeated Newcastle 2-0 at Anfield to return to second place in the Premier League.

Salah put Liverpool ahead just before half-time before Sadio Mane added a second 10 minutes into the second half.

Here, we look at three things learned.

KARIUS BENEFITING FROM RUN OF GAMES

Liverpool are fast running out of legitimate excuses not to be a side capable of mounting a title challenge next season.

Virgil van Dijk’s arrival has had the desired effect in hardening the back four but behind the Dutchman Loris Karius has equally added a degree of fortification.

The arrival of Van Dijk and the superb form of Karius are far from coincidental circumstances but the German is delivering on the performances at Mainz which suggested he could be the front-footed keeper needed to implement Klopp’s system successfully.

The debate over Liverpool’s No1 spot has been a narrative which has undercut their campaign with links in January to Roma’s Alisson dominating the rumour mill.

But the links have since been tempered by a Karius resurgence and the 24-year-old is clearly benefiting from the faith shown by Klopp.

He’s started every Premier League game in 2018 bar the New Year’s Day win over Burnley and he secured a fourth clean sheet this year on Saturday – a stunning first-half save denying Mohamed Diame a certain equaliser, his 16th stop in that run of fixtures.

The constant communication from Van Dijk has obviously given him confidence in tandem with consecutive games and his new mental fortitude is allowing his raw athleticism to come to the fore.

OX IS GETTING SALAH IN THE BOX

Another Liverpool player flourishing at the moment is Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

The 24-year-old has two goals and five assists in his last 10 starts and his combination with Mohamed Salah led to another goal on Saturday.

Marooned at right-wingback for Arsenal, Oxlade-Chamberlain always insisted his best position was through the middle and he’s being vindicated for that stance with his performances in Liverpool’s middle three.

His pace and ability to carry the ball forward through the midfield opens up the space in the channels for the likes of Salah to profit.

The opener arrived because of his direct run and with players dragged out of the position he created the space for the Egyptian and then poked to him for a 24th league goal of the season.

Thierry Henry has said in the past he wasn’t sure what Oxlade-Chamberlain was good at – after a fourth assist to Salah in the league (joint with Sadio Mane) it’s clearly passing to the Egyptian.

SALAH IS MAKING HISTORY

Oxlade-Chamberlain’s energy behind the front three has given the Reds a new dynamic in attack but no-one is exploiting that more than Salah.

The 25-year-old notched his 32nd goal in all competitions, surpassing Luis Suarez for the best goal-scoring season in Liverpool history.

No player within the big five European leagues has scored in more competitive club games than Salah (26 games) this season and he’s also leading the Premier League scoring charts alongside Tottenham’s Harry Kane.

He’s also scored in his last seven games in all competitions with the last Reds player to score in more being Daniel Sturridge (eight) in February 2014.

There are still three more months of the season to come and you can be sure Salah will tumble more records before May.

Two players mentioned above, Sturridge and Suarez, linked with Raheem Sterling to make up one of Liverpool’s best ever front threes.

But Salah is spearheading one even better than that alongside Mane and Roberto Firmino who as a collective have 68 goals this season.