Sadio Mane Lucky Not To Be Sent Off After Two Minutes

Liverpool nearly found themselves down to 10 men after just two minutes of their game against Arsenal on Monday night.

The Reds were hoping to continue their 100% record at the beginning of their title defence when they hosted Mikel Arteta's side, with Arsenal looking for a third win in-a-row in just a few months over their hosts.

It took just a couple of minutes for the first big incident of the night. Mane ran down the right wing, after knocking the ball their himself, and was chased by Kieran Tierney.

The forward looked to fend the left-back off and made contact with Tierney's face with his arm, and potentially the point of his elbow, with the referee blowing for a foul but only showing the Liverpool player a yellow card.

In typical fashion, having got away without a red card, Mane went on to score for Jurgen Klopp's side in the first half, though it wasn't the opening goal of the game.

After coming under early pressure, Alexandre Lacazette opened the scoring for the Gunners after 25 minutes, with a somewhat fortuitous goal, but the lead didn't last long.

Just three minutes later Mohamed Salah's shot was parried by Bernd Leno straight into the path of Mane, with the Senegal forward knocking the ball into an empty net from inches out for 1-1.

Andy Robertson, whose mistake had helped Arsenal go 1-0 up, made it 2-1 to the hosts in the 34th minute, to really rub salt in the wound.

Arsenal had beaten the Premier League champions at the Emirates Stadium at the end of last season, after Liverpool had already been crowned as champions, and then beat them in the Community Shield on penalties last month.

A third win in quick succession might have been possible if Mane had seen red early on.