Mo Salah equals Lionel Messi and breaks plethora of records as ‘special’ season puts Liverpool on verge of title
Mohamed Salah set new records and matched an impressive Lionel Messi feat with a starring role in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Manchester City. The Egyptian forward continued his electric form by firing home his 25th Premier League goal of the season, before turning provider for Dominik Szoboszlai at the Etihad Stadium as the Reds marched 11 points clear at the top of the table. Salah matched an incredible record held by the great MessiGetty GettySzoboszlai assisted Salah’s opener before the roles were reversed for the second[/caption] Salah opened the scoring from a well-worked Liverpool corner. Szoboszlai received a low pass from Alexis Mac Allister before flicking the ball back, which found Salah to coolly slot in the opening goal via a deflection. Moments later, Salah returned the favour to the Hungarian midfielder, squaring a pass for Szoboszlai to fire in Liverpool’s second with his left foot. It equalled a stunning record held by Messi, with Salah now having scored and assisted in 11 Premier League matches this season so far. This is the most by a player in a single season in one of Europe’s big five leagues since Messi managed it for Barcelona in the 2014/15 season, also on 11. The 32-year-old broke some more impressive records during the match too. He became the first player ever to register 25+ goals and 15+ assists in a Premier League season. And he’s the first in Premier League history to be involved in 40+ goals in two different seasons. He is also the first player in Premier League history to score and assist in both games against the reigning champions in a season. His goal moved him to third on Liverpool’s all-time top scoring charts across all competitions, with a total of 241 goals, alongside Gordon Hodgson. The only players ahead of him are Roger Hunt in second on 285 and Ian Rush leading the tally on 346. In the Premier League era Salah comfortably sits atop Liverpool’s list on 180 goals. And this season he has shown no signs of slowing down. GettySalah has continued to break records this season[/caption] You’re not doing bad if you’re competing with Messi It brought his total across all competitions to 30 goals and 20 assists this campaign so far – which is far from over. Salah has netted 16 away goals in the Premier League this season, matching the joint most by a player on the road in one campaign. He matches Kevin Phillips in 1999/00 and Harry Kane in 2022/23. He also now has both the most goals, nine, and assists, six, of any player against sides managed by Pep Guardiola in his top-flight league managerial career. As Jamie Carragher put it: “He’s having a Messi and Ronaldo season.” With all these personal milestones he’s achieving, it’s perhaps no surprise that this season is becoming Salah’s favourite season in his career. Asked if he was playing better than ever, Salah said: “I don’t know. It is opinion. “Maybe people prefer my first seasons or now but I prefer now because winning the league, helping the young players, it is special.” He’s on the verge of equalling his incredible first season at Liverpool where he scored at will Reds head coach Arne Slot admits he struggles to describe Salah’s achievements, although he prefers to take an all-round view of the player’s contribution. “The numbers speak for themselves,” he said. “What pleased me most is that mostly, apart from this game and maybe the home game against City or Chelsea, we have more ball possession. That means we bring him many, many, many times into promising positions. “Today there weren’t that many moments we could bring him into promising positions but the seven, eight, nine, 10 moments that we gave him the ball in those positions he was every time a threat and that probably tells you even more the quality player he is. “It’s not so easy for an attacker if he has to defend, defend, defend and then gets the ball and has to do something special. “That’s sometimes difficult but at the moment not many things seem difficult for Mo.” GettyLiverpool were a class above the reigning Premier League champions[/caption] The win sends Liverpool 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League after title rivals Arsenal suffered a shock defeat to West Ham on Saturday. Liverpool next face Newcastle at Anfield on Wednesday before the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie with Paris Saint-Germain on March 5. Although Arsenal have a match in hand, Liverpool would have to lose three times in their last 11 matches to even offer the chance of being overtaken, and then only if Mikel Arteta’s side were able to win every game. Slot, though, is not getting carried away despite jubiliant Liverpool fans singing about winning the league at the final whistle. Is that the title race done? “The fans can sing whatever they want, but we know as a team how hard we have to work
Mohamed Salah set new records and matched an impressive Lionel Messi feat with a starring role in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Manchester City.
The Egyptian forward continued his electric form by firing home his 25th Premier League goal of the season, before turning provider for Dominik Szoboszlai at the Etihad Stadium as the Reds marched 11 points clear at the top of the table.
Salah opened the scoring from a well-worked Liverpool corner. Szoboszlai received a low pass from Alexis Mac Allister before flicking the ball back, which found Salah to coolly slot in the opening goal via a deflection.
Moments later, Salah returned the favour to the Hungarian midfielder, squaring a pass for Szoboszlai to fire in Liverpool’s second with his left foot.
It equalled a stunning record held by Messi, with Salah now having scored and assisted in 11 Premier League matches this season so far.
This is the most by a player in a single season in one of Europe’s big five leagues since Messi managed it for Barcelona in the 2014/15 season, also on 11.
The 32-year-old broke some more impressive records during the match too.
He became the first player ever to register 25+ goals and 15+ assists in a Premier League season.
And he’s the first in Premier League history to be involved in 40+ goals in two different seasons.
He is also the first player in Premier League history to score and assist in both games against the reigning champions in a season.
His goal moved him to third on Liverpool’s all-time top scoring charts across all competitions, with a total of 241 goals, alongside Gordon Hodgson.
The only players ahead of him are Roger Hunt in second on 285 and Ian Rush leading the tally on 346.
In the Premier League era Salah comfortably sits atop Liverpool’s list on 180 goals. And this season he has shown no signs of slowing down.
It brought his total across all competitions to 30 goals and 20 assists this campaign so far – which is far from over.
Salah has netted 16 away goals in the Premier League this season, matching the joint most by a player on the road in one campaign.
He matches Kevin Phillips in 1999/00 and Harry Kane in 2022/23.
He also now has both the most goals, nine, and assists, six, of any player against sides managed by Pep Guardiola in his top-flight league managerial career.
As Jamie Carragher put it: “He’s having a Messi and Ronaldo season.”
With all these personal milestones he’s achieving, it’s perhaps no surprise that this season is becoming Salah’s favourite season in his career.
Asked if he was playing better than ever, Salah said: “I don’t know. It is opinion.
“Maybe people prefer my first seasons or now but I prefer now because winning the league, helping the young players, it is special.”
Reds head coach Arne Slot admits he struggles to describe Salah’s achievements, although he prefers to take an all-round view of the player’s contribution.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” he said.
“What pleased me most is that mostly, apart from this game and maybe the home game against City or Chelsea, we have more ball possession. That means we bring him many, many, many times into promising positions.
“Today there weren’t that many moments we could bring him into promising positions but the seven, eight, nine, 10 moments that we gave him the ball in those positions he was every time a threat and that probably tells you even more the quality player he is.
“It’s not so easy for an attacker if he has to defend, defend, defend and then gets the ball and has to do something special.
“That’s sometimes difficult but at the moment not many things seem difficult for Mo.”
The win sends Liverpool 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League after title rivals Arsenal suffered a shock defeat to West Ham on Saturday.
Liverpool next face Newcastle at Anfield on Wednesday before the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie with Paris Saint-Germain on March 5.
Although Arsenal have a match in hand, Liverpool would have to lose three times in their last 11 matches to even offer the chance of being overtaken, and then only if Mikel Arteta’s side were able to win every game.
Slot, though, is not getting carried away despite jubiliant Liverpool fans singing about winning the league at the final whistle.
“The fans can sing whatever they want, but we know as a team how hard we have to work for every single win,” he said.
“It is only three days ago someone asked me if we had a dip on Wednesday (in a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa). I don’t believe that as well as I’m calm now about this win.
“You can ask every single question you want, but it is so hard to judge the league table before every single game is played.
“In my opinion, Villa and City away (Liverpool’s last two matches) are two very difficult games so you can drop points there.
“In every other league having a lead like this would be very comfortable – except for this one because this league every single ga
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