While Liverpool can celebrate going top of the Premier League following a dramatic 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield on Sunday. Goals from Roberto Firmino and a Toby Alderweireld own goal after a bad Hugo Lloris blunder gave the Reds an important win and extending the worrying goal drought of star forward, Mohamed Salah.
The Egypt international has endured a dry spell in front of goal in recent times, having scored just one goal in the club’s last nine matches in all competitions – a run which has seen Senegal forward, Sadio Mane, catch up with him on 17 goals in the race to win the Premier League golden boot.
But Salah was not worried about his form, despite his header which led to the Liverpool winner against Spurs not counted in his name eventually. Instead, he fired a subtle shot at his goalscoring rivals as well as critics who have stated the former Chelsea and AS Roma man is having a bad season.
“Normally I stay outside the box on corners but I followed my intuition and went inside. I have to wait to see if the Premier League give me the goal,” Salah said in his post-match interview. While the goal was awarded as an own goal, Salah was happy to see his team get an important win in the title race for the Reds.
“We got the three points, that’s the most important thing. I don’t care about the goal. There are some players with the same number of goals as me and they are having the best season of my life, and I’m supposed to be having a bad season,” the Egyptian added. Other than Mane, another African star, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Arsenal also has 17 goals.
Tottenham’s Harry Kane is also on 17 goals as the England striker along with the three African stars are two goals behind Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero with 19 goals, while the Argentine striker’s teammate, Raheem Sterling is not far behind with 15 goals. Recall that Salah beat Kane to the Golden Boot award last season with 32 goals.
Still, Salah stated the prize he wants more than anything else right now. “I want to win the Premier League; that’s the most important thing for me. The atmosphere was crazy and the fans help us a lot. They are desperate to win the league and we will do everything to make that happen,” he said.
What do you make of Salah’s statement? Are critics being unfair to him? Tell us your opinion in the comments section.