From Alan Shearer to Thierry Henry, from Cristiano Ronaldo to Harry Kane, the Premier League has seen its fair share of world-class goal scorers over the last 25 years.
Those game-changing forwards are among the few footballers who have put together the greatest goal-scoring seasons in the English topflight’s history, setting the bar in arguably the best domestic league on the planet. And while those campaigns have gone down in English football lore, 2017-18 may be on the verge of producing the best goal-scoring season in Premier League history.
After bagging four goals in Liverpool’s last game – a shellacking of Watford on St. Patrick’s Day – Mohamed Salah enters Matchday 31 this upcoming weekend with 28 league goals, scoring at a pace the Premier League has never seen. The highlights of the Reds’ dominant 5-0 win over the Hornets play like a “Best of Salah” special, showing off all of what the Egyptian forward has to offer.
Mo Salah breaks ankles on the way to his 25th Premier League goal for Liverpool this season.
#LIVWAT pic.twitter.com/dnftt9zJYQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) March 17, 2018
What Salah is doing in his first year at Anfield is unprecedented.
Salah’s debut season with Liverpool is his first taste of full-time action in England’s topflight. While not technically a Premier League debutant – he appeared in 13 games for Chelsea from 2013-15, scoring twice – his limited time on the pitch under Jose Mourinho (530 minutes over less than 13 months) was far from enough time to become familiar with the gruelling nature of the Premier League.
Debutant or not, Salah’s 2017-18 campaign is already the best-ever by a player in his first full season in the Premier League. And there’s still eight games left to be played.
His 0.93 goals-per-game through 30 matches dwarves the rates of the division’s best debut seasons, with only Alan Shearer’s 0.81 coming the closest in his first campaign with Newcastle.
Best Premier League goal-scoring debut seasons
*First seasons in the Premier League
But let’s forget debuts and first seasons.
Salah can reach heights the Premier League has never seen. He’s on course to make history over the final two months of the season.
The 25-year-old forward is two goals away from hitting the 30-goal mark, a total equalled by only nine others since the Premier League’s inception in 1992. Salah is just three goals from tying the Premier League record for most in a 38-game season (31), a feat accomplished by only Alan Shearer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez. Finally, he’s only five from tying the division’s all-time mark for most goals in a season (34), set by the aforementioned Shearer and Andy Cole, each doing so in 42-game seasons. Salah has the chance to achieve the feat in less than 38.
Salah currently ranks behind just Luis Suarez (0.94) and Harry Kane (0.97) as the best goal-per-game marks in Premier League history. Two or three more multi-goal games – the 25-year-old has six league games with at least two goals so far this season – could see Salah eclipse Kane’s goals-per-game from last season, the highest mark set among the Premier League’s best goal-scoring seasons.
Best Premier League goal-scoring seasons
Salah is scoring at a rate of one goal every 85.5 minutes this season, a pace that, among the top goal-scoring Premier League seasons detailed above, would trump them all should he continue on this goal-scoring run throughout the final eight contests of 2017-18.
Salah is setting the new standard for goal-scoring excellence in England. The Egyptian could surpass 31 goals over the remaining eight games and reach 34 if he continues on this torrid pace. With relegation-threatened sides Crystal Palace, West Brom and Stoke all still to come for Liverpool before the end of the season, it’s not inconceivable that he’ll do just that.
The title race may be over in England, but Salah’s race to Premier League history is worth watching.
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