Richard Hughes could be straight on the phone after what happened in 77th minute at Anfield | OneFootball

Liverpool went to the top of the Premier League on Sunday after a statement victory over Arsenal, but it’s one which might have come at a cost.

While Dominik Szoboszlai’s thunderbolt free kick ensured that the home fans left Anfield in a gleeful mood, Arne Slot will have two big concerns to pore through during the post-match debrief.

Liverpool suffer two huge injury blows against Arsenal

In the 77th minute (shortly before the decisive goal), Ibrahima Konate went to ground and received treatment before limping off to be replaced by Joe Gomez for the conclusion of the game.

Just before the match entered stoppage time (of which eight minutes were played), Florian Wirtz also had some medical attention before holding his right thigh and shaking his head as he left the pitch.

The international break at least means that Liverpool don’t play again for two weeks, which’ll either reduce the number of games the pair could miss, or ensure that they might be back for the visit to Burnley on 14 September, all going well.

(Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Liverpool could be frantically busy in final 24 hours of transfer window

Obviously it’s far from ideal to lose any player so early in the season, especially your club-record signing, but at least Slot has a broad choice of options to replace Wirtz in the number 10 role if he’s to be sidelined for our upcoming matches.

However, Konate’s body blow again leaves us with just three senior centre-backs (including Giovanni Leoni, who’s yet to make his Reds debut), and that could have sporting director Richard Hughes getting straight on the phone in the final 24 hours of the transfer window.

Liverpool had an opening offer of £35m for Marc Guehi turned down by Crystal Palace, who might now be tempted to raise their asking price in light of the Frenchman’s injury at Anfield today, knowing that LFC’s desperation will have increased.

FSG don’t tend to do panic buys this late in the window, but we suspect that Slot will privately be begging with the club’s hierarchy not to leave him short at centre-back for when the fixture schedule becomes far more intense in the autumn months.

Fingers crossed that Konate and Wirtz won’t be sidelined for long, and that Hughes might yet pull off a deal for Guehi (who’s playing for the Eagles against Aston Villa tonight) before tomorrow’s 7pm deadline.