Mohamed Salah made history off the bench on his Liverpool return in a comfortable 2-0 win over Brighton as Hugo Ekitike's double took the champions up to sixth in the Premier League.
Salah, restored to the squad following talks with head coach Arne Slot on Friday, was introduced earlier than expected, replacing the injured Joe Gomez after 26 minutes, and Anfield greeted him with big cheers, any ill feeling over his interview at Leeds forgotten.
Ekitike scored twice for the second league game running, but the manner of the Egypt forward's performance, in his final appearance before AFCON, ensured that Salah made the headlines once again as he wrapped up a difficult week with an assist and nearly much more.
after the club removed him from selection for the Champions League trip to Inter and hopes the 33-year-old can bring the form he showed against Brighton back with him from AFCON.
Salah set up Ekitike's towering header, and second goal, with a corner in the second half that took him to the all-time record for Premier League goal involvements for a single club, surpassing Wayne Rooney's total for Manchester United.
His 277th goal involvement (188 goals, 89 assists) for Liverpool in the league ended a run of three games without one in the competition - and he so nearly left with a goal to go with it, only to fire over late on from Federico Chiesa's cross.
Liverpool were already in front when Salah came on after Ekitike scored the fastest goal of the Premier League season with just 46 seconds on the clock thanks to a poor Yankuba Minteh clearance pounced on by Gomez's header to tee up the Frenchman.
Brighton's Diego Gomez failed to convert two big chances to equalise either side of the break and was fortunate still to be on the pitch for the second, a sitter at the back post, having survived a VAR check for a high challenge on Florian Wirtz.
Liverpool made a potentially difficult afternoon look easier than it might have been, despite finishing with a lower xG, as they extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to five games to overtake Brighton, who drop to ninth after a third game without a win.
Salah stopped after the game to appreciate the home fans, singing his name all afternoon, but gave little away whether this could be his farewell game. The Liverpool icon has said goodbye for now, only time will tell if he is on the same page as Slot.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot on Salah:
"For me, there is no issue to resolve. He is now the same as any player. You talk to your players if you are happy or unhappy with things but there is nothing for me to talk about after what happened against Leeds after the game.
"The reason why he wasn't in Milan was his interview. The question is always - and everyone has a different opinion - should he be [benched] once, twice, four times, four months, 12 months, 12 years.
"Every manager makes different decisions about that. He wasn't involved in the game against [Inter] Milan and I spoke to him yesterday [Friday].
"As I usually never say anything about what we talk about, I'm not going to make an exception now but I think actions speak louder than what has been said.
"He was in the squad again and when I had to make my first substitution, I brought him in and he performed how every fan, I think, including me, would like him to perform today."
Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler:
"We definitely deserved more, maybe even a win but we created so many chances. We had a bad start, reacted well and a set-piece against us that we didn't defend well.
"It's about consistency and doing it for 90 minutes, and that's where we lost it. There were several key moments and we had good chances to score goals. We have to take responsibility for that loss. the game was there to win but in the end we couldn't take it.
"The goals were definitely avoidable. It's about having a good start and defending set-pieces. Set-pieces are getting so important so we have to improve."
