It was a goal that epitomised everything so great about Liverpool's 2021/22 season.
Joel Matip surged forward with the ball from deep before spraying it out to Trent Alexander-Arnold. The England international then, without even needing a touch to set himself, whipped in a ferocious low ball for Mohamed Salah to slam home at the near post and hand Jurgen Klopp's side a much-needed lead after they had been forced to weather an early storm at Elland Road.
For Salah, that particular strike had been just under seven years in the making. Not in a literal sense, but because his opener at Elland Road during the 3-0 thrashing of Leeds United last September was his 100th Premier League goal.
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Of his century of strikes in the English top flight, two came in the royal blue of Chelsea and the other 98 came from 2017 onwards after he sealed his return to England, after a three-year hiatus, by signing for Liverpool.
However, Salah's immense goalscoring exploits since he made the move to Anfield were highlighted by the fact he was the fifth-quickest Premier League forward to net 100 goals, doing so in 162 appearances. That impressive strike-rate saw him rank just behind Thierry Henry (160 games), Sergio Aguero (147), Harry Kane (142), and Alan Shearer (127).
Considering 13 of Salah's first 162 games saw him line up for Chelsea, playing just 531 minutes across two seasons, his phenomenal adjustment to life at Anfield saw him fire a further 98 goals in 149 games.
"With Mo's record, it's crazy," said Klopp after the 3-0 drubbing of Leeds last year. "I don't know how many he can break and he's probably desperate to do so. Since he joined us, what a player! And he's still hungry."
Just two weeks later Salah would run up a century of goals in Liverpool red, as he found the back of the net against Crystal Palace and Brentford in the following Premier League games. In doing so, he would become the fastest Liverpool player to achieve that feat in league football - surpassing the legendary Roger Hunt's tally of 100 in 152 games.
The goal against Leeds would come in the midst of arguably his finest spell on Merseyside, as his performances during the first half of the campaign saw him become a permanent fixture in the Ballon d'Or conversations across Europe. Fifteen goals from the Egyptian, including the remarkable accomplishment of becoming the first opposition player to score a Premier League hat-trick at Old Trafford, between August and December saw Salah forge a devastating relationship with Alexander-Arnold on the right-hand side of the attack.
Of those 15 strikes prior to the turn of the year, the now-30-year-old published his own archive of Goal of the Season contenders week in, week out, as Premier League defenders tried and failed to handle the former Roma star's sharpshooting. However, since those wonderful slalom goals against Manchester City and Watford and the weeks and months which followed, Salah has endured his most barren spell in front of goal.
In a year that should have been momentous, crowned with Ballon d'Or glory, 2022 has largely become one to forget for the forward. He suffered heartache against Senegal in February's Africa Cup of Nations final, as former team-mate Sadio Mane converted the winning spot-kick in Cameroon, before later mourning the same outcome against the same opposition in March's World Cup play-off. Add in the near misses in both the Premier League and Champions League in May and heartbreak has been the theme of Salah's 2022.
Since returning from the AFCON in February, he has managed nine Premier League goals in 21 outings. It's a return that has seen his minutes-per-goal metric drop to 168 minutes, which is a significant decrease from the 118 minutes per goal he averaged between August and September 2021.
Despite the arrival of Darwin Nunez from Benfica for an initial £64m, Salah has failed to recapture his soaring heights of last season. Having fired just two goals in the Premier League so far this term, there are a considerable number of reasons as to why the Egypt international, like many of his team-mates, has struggled to really get going in this campaign thus far.
Salah, like Luis Diaz and Mane, ranks in the top 10 players for the most minutes accumulated during the 2021/22 season for club and country as Liverpool featured in all 63 games on offer. That has no doubt brought a physical hangover into the early weeks of this season, with the Reds looking sluggish in attack, and noticeably in recovery too, and the lack of pressing in midfield is offering a huge amount of space for opponents to chance their luck at exploiting Klopp's renowned high defensive line.
Perhaps most telling of all is, despite his apparent struggles in attack, Salah has scored two league goals from an xG score of 2.5, which suggests that Liverpool's No.11 is currently doing well at living off scraps. Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson - who are also suffering as a result of the midfield imbalance - are failing to create any form of chances within the attacking third on a regular basis this term.
Of course, with the reintroduction of Thiago Alcantara, coupled with the expected returns of Jordan Henderson, Curtis Jones, Ibrahima Konate and Curtis Jones in the coming weeks, things can surely only get better for Liverpool and their Egyptian King in the weeks and months ahead.
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