Even with a new two-year contract and a second Premier League winner’s medal in the bag, Mo Salah still has one ‘important’ target that he wants to accomplish before the end of this month.
The Egyptian is all but certain to win the division’s Golden Boot award (either outright or jointly) for the fourth time, having struck 28 goals in the Reds’ title-winning top-flight campaign, but he needs one more goal or assist for a share of the record for the most G/A in a single season since the league’s 1992 rebranding.
The accolade is held by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole, who reached 47 G/A in 1994/95 and 1993/94 respectively, although both of those came when the Premier League was played over 42 matches rather than the current 38.
Salah desperate to set new Premier League record
In an interview with Gary Neville for Sky Sports (in which he revealed that he previously thought this would be his final season at Liverpool), Salah spoke of his determination to break the record for most goals and assists in a single campaign.
He thought he would go level with Shearer and Cole last Sunday after creating a chance that Luis Diaz was unable to convert against Arsenal, but the Egyptian remains confident that he will reach the unprecedented 48 G/A mark before the end of our concluding fixture against Crystal Palace next weekend.
The 32-year-old said: “I broke the one for 38. It is important to me. We slowed down because we won the league. In the last game, Lucho missed a chance and I was like, ‘Man, what else can I do!’ I would love to break it. I think I’ll break it. I am confident!”
Give the ball to Salah and he will score (and/or assist!)
The irony here is that Salah is actually enduring his most fallow period of the season, with only one goal and one assist to show from his last seven matches – before that run he’d only failed to provide a goal contribution in four out of 29 top-flight games (Transfermarkt).
He has two more matches to surpass the record set by Shearer and Cole, and history suggests that there’s a strong chance of him doing just that despite his downturn in form over the past few weeks.
Our final couple of games are away to Brighton and at home to Crystal Palace, opponents against whom Liverpool’s number 11 has accrued 18 goals and 12 assists in 32 previous meetings combined (Transfermarkt).
It speaks volumes for Salah’s elite mentality that, even with the title sewn up three weeks ago, he’s still hell-bent on achieving an individual accolade that no other Premier League player has managed, and that he fully believed he’ll do so by Sunday week.
Among the litany of personal records that he’s set during his eight years at Anfield, there could be yet another to add to the collection in the neight eight days, all going well!
