Photo Credit - Liverpool FC Media.
Egypt forward Mohamed Salah was left in cloud nine after his brace for Liverpool in a 3-1 win against Southampton moved him level with Sergio Aguero in fifth spot in the rankings of the Premier League's all-time leading goalscorers and equalled a record for goal involvements in a Premier League season.
According to the Premier League statistics, the Egyptian's two second-half penalties took his Premier League tally to 184 goals, level with Aguero, who overtook Thierry Henry as the top-scoring player from outside the UK in the competition's history with a hat-trick in Manchester City's 6-1 win at Aston Villa in January 2020.
Aguero took 275 Premier League matches to reach 184 goals, with Salah reaching that total in his 292nd appearance. And with nine matches of the season remaining, Salah looks set to overhaul Andrew Cole, who is fourth in the overall rankings with 187 goals.
Asked about equaling Aguero’s record after the Southampton win, Salah said as quoted by Liverpool official website: “I knew about the record but I didn’t think about it while I was playing. But I know about the record. It’s a good record to be equalising; Sergio is a great player, he was a legend here for the league. So I’m happy about that and I’m happy about the win as well.”
On what they discussed at half-time, he said: “A bit of frustration. The manager, his head, was like going for us – but that’s something you need sometimes. Because first half, the game was sloppy, we just were slow and taking our time and in the last minute they managed to [go ahead in] the game. But we are now more experienced, we can manage that situation and I’m glad that we did.”
On whether it was the performance champions are made of, the Egyptian captain explained: “Yeah, because I don’t think we played well today. Maybe second half we played a little bit better, but first half we didn’t play well at all. But if you want to win the Champions League or the Premier League, you have to win those kinds of games.”
Following the brace, the Egyptian moved clear ahead of Gordon Hodgson. Salah, who arrived from AS Roma in the summer of 2017, moved up the chart on what was his 390th appearance for the club.
182 of his goals for Liverpool have come in the Premier League, while he has been on the scoresheet on 45 occasions in the Champions League, six in the Emirates FA Cup, five in the Europa League, four in the Carabao Cup and once in the Community Shield.
Only Ian Rush (346) and Roger Hunt (285) have scored more goals for the Reds than the No.11.
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