Danny Welbeck scored his 11th and 12th Premier League goals of the season as Brighton & Hove Albion inflicted more misery on Liverpool.
The 35-year-old gave Brighton an early lead and, though Arne Slot’s side levelled through Milos Kerkez, scored again in the second half to make it four wins out of five for Brighton, who moved up to eighth before the remainder of the weekend’s games.
No English player has scored more goals than Welbeck in the top flight this season yet he was overlooked by Thomas Tuchel for his 35-man England squad on Friday.
As for Liverpool, this was their 10th defeat of the Premier League season. The last time they lost that many games was in 2015-16, and defeat means Chelsea could leapfrog them into fifth when they take on Everton (17:30 GMT).
Kick-off was delayed by 15 minutes at Amex Stadium because of a nearby road accident and when play did eventually start, a frenetic first half was littered with mistakes.
Liverpool’s Hugo Ekitike was forced off with a worrying injury early on after clashing with James Milner and minutes later, Brighton took the lead.
Giorgi Mamardashvili, again standing in for the injured Alisson in the Liverpool goal, passed the ball out of play and from the resulting throw-in, Ferdi Kadioglu’s cross found Diego Gomez, who headed the ball across goal and Welbeck was on hand to head past the Liverpool keeper.
It was a Brighton error which led to the equaliser as Lewis Dunk tried to head back a long ball from Mamardashvili to Bart Verbruggen but Kerkez did brilliantly to anticipate it and dink the ball over the Brighton keeper and into the net.
It was Brighton who started the better after the break with Mamardashvili making a good save to deny Kadioglu before Mats Wieffer headed wide from a corner.
And they were rewarded for their endeavour when Yankuba Minteh’s delivery across goal found Jack Hinshelwood, who played the ball into the path of Welbeck to finish.
Brighton could have scored more but Mamardashvili made some crucial saves and at the other end, Liverpool came close through Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo, but Slot’s side could not find another leveller.
Despite winning emphatically against Galatasaray in the Champions League in midweek, Liverpool have only gained one point from their past three Premier League games.
