Is Salah set for greatest individual Premier League season?

There seems no stopping Liverpool or Mohamed Salah this season.

The Reds are 11 points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League as they look to become champions for the 20th time.

Egypt forward Salah has been integral in that success and again played a starring role with a goal and an assist in Liverpool’s 2-0 win at reigning champions Manchester City on Sunday to continue his incredible form in 2024-25.

But is the 32-year-old on course for the best individual campaign since the Premier League era began in 1992?

Salah has won the Golden Boot as the league’s top scorer three times (outright in 2017-18 and shared in 2018-19 and 2021-22) and is leading the race this season.

His best campaign featured 32 goals, but he could beat that in the next few months.

He has 25 goals in 27 games – six clear of Newcastle’s Alexander Isak and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, the player who won the award in the past two seasons.

Haaland’s 36 goals two seasons ago is a Premier League record, although no-one will probably ever pass Dixie Dean’s incredible 60 league goals for Everton in 1927-28.

Only Arsenal’s Thierry Henry has been top scorer in four seasons of the Premier League, while only Jimmy Greaves at Chelsea and Tottenham in the 1950s and 60s (six) and Derby County’s Steve Bloomer in the 1890s and 1900s (five) have been top more often in the English top flight.

But Salah is more than just a goalscorer.

He is well clear in assists too with 16 – six more than anyone else in the Premier League and five more than Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal, who is next across Europe’s big five leagues.

Salah has 11 games to break the single-season Premier League assists record of 20 shared by Henry in 2002-03 and Manchester City’s Kevin de Bruyne in 2019-20.

When you combine goals with assists, Salah has 41 goal contributions. The Premier League record is 47 – shared by Blackburn’s Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole at Newcastle, although they did that in 42-match campaigns.

In a 38-game season, the best is 44 by Haaland two years ago (36 goals, eight assists) and Henry in 2002-03 (24 goals, 20 assists).

Since 2006-07 only four players in England, Spain, Italy, Germany or France have reached 50 goal contributions in a single season: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (three), Barcelona’s Luis Suarez (one) and Paris St-Germain’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic (one).

Messi’s best league total came in an incredible 2011-12 season with 66 goal contributions (50 goals and 16 assists).

Salah has scored and assisted a goal in 49 league matches in his career in Europe’s big five leagues.

Salah has scored in six league games in a row. If he gets a goal against Newcastle on Wednesday it would match his best run at Liverpool after scoring in seven consecutive matches earlier this season and also in 2021-22.

Jamie Vardy holds the record of scoring in 11 successive Premier League games.

Salah has four more games in which to set records for most Premier League goals away from home as well as most assists away from home.

He has 16 league goals on his travels, a figure matched only by Kevin Phillips at Sunderland in 1999-2000 and Harry Kane at Tottenham two seasons ago.

Salah has the joint most away Premier League assists in a season, level with Cesc Fabregas’ 11 that he set in his first campaign with Chelsea in 2014-15.

Salah has 182 Premier League goals and sits sixth overall. Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero is fifth with 184 and Cole fourth with 187, while Shearer is top with 260.

Asked on Sunday if he was playing better than ever, Salah told Sky Sports: “It is opinion. Maybe people prefer my first seasons, but I prefer now because winning the league, helping the young players, it is special.”

It is no surprise that Salah is being talked about as a potential winner of the Ballon d’Or, awarded to the best footballer in the world.

Liberia striker George Weah is the only African to win the award – in 1995 at AC Milan – while Salah came fifth in 2019 and 2022.

“Mo Salah is having a Messi and Ronaldo season,” former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports. “This is going to end up being the greatest season we’ve seen from an individual, I have no doubt about that.

“It’s not whether he will finish above those players in terms of [goal contribution] numbers. It’s how far he can go and can he set the bar so high in future no-one can ever get there again?

“We’re seeing something special. This is now an all-time season. When you talk about the Premier League, you put Thierry Henry on top, but for me Mo Salah is definitely second. If he signs a new contract that will be a fight to the finish.”

Daniel Sturridge, a former team-mate of Salah, said: “We’re talking Ballon d’Or now. We have to start putting him in that conversation.

“What Mo is doing season in, season out is ridiculous. It’s mind-blowing. When he came to the club nobody thought he would be close to a guy that scores 25 goals a season.

“His motivation is there and his professionalism. In the summer he comes back in unbelievable shape every single season. He wants to be the best and be recognised as the best in the world.