It may have evaded many Liverpool fans’ attention that, in converting the penalty to secure victory against Wolves on Saturday, Mo Salah got rid of a proverbial monkey which had been on his back for almost three years.
The Egyptian netted from the spot at Molineux yesterday for his fifth goal of the season in all competitions, having also scored in top-flight away wins at Ipswich and Manchester United, and at Anfield against Brentford and West Ham.
VOTE for Empire of the Kop in Best Club Content Creator – Premier League HERE
In reviewing the 2-1 win over Gary O’Neil’s side for The Athletic, James Pearce noted a statistic which may come as quite a surprise given the 32-year-old’s consistently prolific nature for the Reds.
The journalist pointed out that Salah ‘has now scored in three successive Premier League away games for the first time since October 2021’.
Considering that Salah has hit tallies of 23, 19 and 18 in the last three top-flight seasons, the stat that Pearce highlighted seems quite astonishing.
This particular three-game sequence wasn’t reached in as sensational a fashion as when it last happened (with a hat-trick in a 5-0 romp at Old Trafford), but the form that the 32-year-old is showing in the early weeks of this campaign shows why his future needs to be resolved sooner rather than later.
In seven full seasons at Anfield, the Egyptian’s lowest tally in all competitions is 23 (which curiously came in the title-winning 2019/20 campaign); and barring any lengthy injuries (heaven forbid), he already seems well on track to surpass that number again in 2024/25.
None of the four players who’ve scored more goals for Liverpool than Salah have been active in the 21st century, and only one of those (Ian Rush) has played for the Reds since the 1970s (lfchistory.net), which highlights just how rare a goalscoring phenonemon we have in our current number 11.
The Egyptian King netted in each of his first five away games in the 2021/22 Premier League, and we certainly wouldn’t bet against him repeating that feat by the time LFC have played Crystal Palace and Arsenal in October.
It’d be criminal if someone of his extraordinary abilities is allowed to leave through the back door on a free transfer in nine months’ time.
EOTK Close-up with John Welsh: ‘a local lad who lived his dream’ and Slot’s LFC predictions