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Fabian Hurzeler was not too gracious after Brighton and Hove Albion's defeat to Liverpool(Image: 2026 MB Media)
It was a perfect weekend of football for Andoni Iraola and his Liverpool side. On a weekend Manchester City and Chelsea both suffered defeats, the Reds capitalised by overcoming third-placed Brighton and Hove Albion to climb into the top four.
Alexander Isak's sixth Premier League strike of the campaign and an own goal from Pascal Gross saw Iraola secure his first league victory at Anfield. He's endured an inconsistent start on Merseyside, but the triumph ensured they moved within arm's reach of table-toppers City and second-placed Arsenal, who moved level on points with a 2-0 victory over Everton.
There were some low moments, including the sight of an improved Florian Wirtz going off injured, but it appeared to be more of a precaution. There was also a moment for one of Iraola's summer signings to secure his hero status at the club - Mirror Football takes a look at some key moments from the weekend.
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Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler was anything but gracious in defeat when he offered his verdict on the match. In his press conference, after being asked for his view, he replied: "I think everyone in the stadium saw that there was one team who really tried to create and try to win this game and therefore I have to praise my players.
"I think everyone in the stadium, and you as well, felt there was a missed opportunity for us, because it's not only after the goal or the goals they scored. Also, before they scored, we had one, two big chances and today I think it was just the difference that they scored, we didn't score.
"They kept a clean sheet because they defended well with their centre-backs, with full-back [Ronald] Araujo and with [Milos] Kerkez. I think they blocked a lot of shots. They really defended the box well. We didn't have that efficiency. We couldn't keep the clean sheet because we made easy mistakes, we lost some important personal duels."
Araujo is winning over Liverpool fans with every performance(Image: 2026 MB Media)
Liverpool fans in awe of Ronald Araujo have broken a famous golden rule in football - never fall in love with a loan player.
It's an adage as old as time, yet the home fans could not help but cheer when Araujo put his head in harm's way, from point-blank range, to block a shooting opportunity, despite there being a real risk of serious injury. While he had one near miss, he took a kick to the face from Malick Yalcouye in the final knockings of the match to halt a counterattack.
Araujo arrived on loan from Barcelona this summer. The club does hold the option to buy him for around £47m at the end of the season, but it's too early to tell if they will fork out the money to sign him permanently.
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