Talisman Mitrovic looking ready to be prolific at Premier level

WITH JUST 47 seconds on the clock, you wondered whether old habits were going to die hard. Trent Alexander-Arnold had carelessly conceded possession and handed the opportunity for Aleksandar Mitrovic to scuttle forward.

Mitrovic (left) was Fulham’s ‘killer’ in the Championship — a description given to him by captain Tom Cairney — with 43 goals in their title-winning campaign. Without him, Fulham’s prospects of reaching the Premier League would have been diminished.

The Premier League, however, has been a challenge for the Serbian. The last time he was here with Fulham, he managed three goals in 27 appearances. It had been better in 2018-19, with 11 in 37 games, but still not enough to suggest he was going to be a nuisance for top defenders.

So in that first minute, as he charged towards Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, you wondered what would happen — a dead-eyed finish or ammunition for those who want to call him ‘jigsaw’, in that he falls apart in a box? A scuffed toe-poke wide suggested the latter.

Perhaps it was nerves. In the opening half-hour, he did not give Virgil van Dijk or Joel Matip any indication that they would be taken out of their comfort zone: a chance was spurned in the 24th minute, a terrible pass out wide in the 28th minute took the sting out of a counterattack.

Most glaring of all was Mitrovic’s failure to connect with a peach of a cross from the terrific Neeskens Kebano, whose ball had whistled into the six-yard area and demanded a finish be applied. Mitrovic grimaced as the chance came

and went. His manager Marco Silva looked to the sky in despair.

A case of deja vu again? Not a bit of it. It was as if that last moment flicked a switch, for in the next attack, he arrived at the back post to power in a superb ball from Joao Palhina.

From here, you could see Mitrovic fill with confidence, and the impact it had on his team was profound as they went toe-to-toe with Liverpool.

Nobody epitomised this approach more than Mitrovic himself, who went up a gear in the second period. A sign of how much he was enjoying things came in the 56th minute when he bounced off Jordan Henderson and then turned Van Dijk before setting his team away again.

It seems churlish to be questioning a player whose goal record at international level is 46 in 74 games, but sceptics wanted to see evidence that there would be no Premier League famine for the 27-year-old.

Seeing him battling with Van Dijk and becoming a focal point for Kebano to run off will have given everyone at his club belief that he can be their talisman.

Every point and every goal will be vital and Mitrovic’s penalty — awarded after VAR felt Van Dijk had tripped him — was expertly dispatched.

It seemed like he would be the match-winner. But Mohamed Salah had other ideas.

A shame for Mitrovic, then, but this indicates there will be even better days to come.

This has to be the launchpad for a season in which he is talked of in terms of being prolific, not profligate.