Liverpool’s Mo Salah continued his rapid ascent up the pantheon of great Premier League goalscorers at Anfield this afternoon, where he scored his 49th and 50th goals in the competition against Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace. Remarkably, he’s managed this feat in just 72 appearances.
Only three strikers, each from a different generation to Salah, managed to do that quicker. A Newcastle United/Manchester United crossover of Andy Cole (65), Alan Shearer (66) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (68) makes up that trio.
Fernando Torres is level with the Egyptian on 72, while there are some illustrious names below him. Sergio Aguero (81), Thierry Henry (83) and Kevin Phillips (83), all took a longer time to notch the big five-oh in the competition.
The move into a central striking position this season from the wing has allowed him to get onto the end of easy finishes like the one that the Palace keeper Julian Speroni gifted him for his second goal of the day this afternoon.
That, surely, means he’ll be very hard to catch in the race for the Golden Boot this year as he bids to retain the award. He sits at the top of the scoring ranks with 16 games and, with his closest pursuer Harry Kane out injured, he could be set to pull away from the chasing pack
Jurgen Klopp’s striker is scoring at a rate of one goal per 121 minutes on the pitch so far this season, the best goals-per-minute ratio in the league.
A second consecutive win of the award would surely mean that any conversation about the best strikers in the Premier League era must, at least, include the Egyptian's name.
The man himself wasn’t too self-congratulatory after the result when asked how he felt about the landmark by the Sky Sports cameras. “Great,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting fifty with Liverpool, you know I also scored 2 with Chelsea so...”
