Talk of Mohamed Salah’s imminent, or even necessary, demise from the Liverpool team looked as premature as ever as he led the Reds to a 4-2 win over Tottenham on Sunday.

The Egyptian scored the opening goal as Spurs were dismantled at Anfield, with Andrew Robertson, Cody Gakpo and Harvey Elliott all on the scoresheet.

The visitors, making the rare decision to play a more defensive three-man midfield, had appeared to settle well but Liverpool’s tails were up from the moment Salah clipped the crossbar with a dinked cross seven minutes in.

Moments later, Salah saw another effort saved by Guglielmo Vicario before Cristian Romero repelled Elliott’s follow-up on the goalline.

The Reds led on 16 minutes when Emerson Royal lost track of Salah and he ghosted in to head home Gakpo’s delicious cross - with some help from the weak palms of Vicario.

Salah tormented the stand-in left-back all afternoon in a display which must have convinced any doubters of his desire, following the Jurgen Klopp bust-up at West Ham, as well as any doubters of his ability, amid continued pundit headlines dedicated to this summer supposedly being the ideal time for him to head off for Saudi Arabia.

Tottenham failed to deliver a convincing riposte and deservedly fell two goals behind on the verge of half-time when Robertson popped up in the box to feed Salah, and earned a tap-in after beating the idle visiting defence to his teammate’s rebound.

Gakpo was rewarded for his delightful assist by the delivery of a peach of a cross from Elliott after the break, which the Dutch forward powered home to make it three.

Elliott then got in on the act with the pick of the bunch, drifting in from the right flank to curl home a 25-yard strike into the top corner.

To their credit, Spurs pushed numbers forward and tried to play their own game at four goals down - arguably far more so than at any point earlier on - and ruined Liverpool’s clean sheet with Richarlison’s late strike off the bench. Heung-min Son’s finish on 77 minutes threatened a surprise late comeback but it proved little more than a footnote on Liverpool’s day.