Have Liverpool passed their sternest run-in test?

Premier League: Liverpool 2, Brighton 1 

This was always going to be one of the toughest of Liverpool's last 10 games in the Premier League title chase - and so it proved.

Brighton had only lost one of their previous eight games against Jurgen Klopp's team while Roberto De Zerbi actually boasted an unbeaten record of two wins and two draws since taking over as Seagulls boss 18 months ago.

And when Danny Welbeck gave the visitors the lead after just 87 seconds, Klopp must have thought: "here we go again."

In the end Liverpool got the win thanks to goals from Luis Diaz and Mo Salah they were made to work right to the final whistle.

At this stage of the season it is all about results rather than spectacular performances and hugely relieved Klopp summed it up succinctly wen he said: "Difficult game, good performance, great result. That's the best we have played against De Zerbi's Brighton."

The result cranked ranked up the pressure on their title rivals Manchester city and Arsenal ahead of their showdown at the Etihad but Liverpool can only concentrate on doing their job - and that's just what they did despite the shock of Welbeck's stunner.

Klopp added: "I would have loved to not be 1-0 down, I would love to have been four or five nil up. Playing wise it was really good, defending wise, yes always a struggle but there's been games against Brighton we were never close but this time we were calm.

"Brighton have incredible quality. That is the measure I have for how good we were today because I really respect them. They had chances, they took more risks all of a sudden and we got slightly tired.

“We deserved to win the game. That is what you want and then on top of that it is really cool. That is the first of the