- This is getting ridiculous. In a season containing nearly as many superlative descriptions as goals scored, Mohamed Salah continued to write his own Liverpool destiny with four superb finishes in a personal performance at Anfield that was as complete and as ruthless as anything this famous stadium has seen down the decades.
Watford will have returned home last night wondering how they were on the end of such a sobering scoreline. They were by no means a shambles. Yet, in sport, ability generally finds a way of shining through and Salah’s class is so clearcut, so emphatic and so enjoyable that he is comfortably the Premier League’s most attractive sight at present.
The really frightening thing was he barely broke sweat – his goals completely dismantled Watford yet he maintained a relaxed, smiley air throughout.
Two of his goals carried the same jinking manner and positional nous as that displayed by Lionel Messi, and Jürgen Klopp noted that Salah’s form this season is making comparisons between the two increasingly valid.
“I think Mo is on the way [to being the best in the world],” Klopp said. “In a way that’s good. I don’t think Mo or anybody else wants to be compared with Lionel Messi. He is the one who is doing what he’s doing for what feels like 20 years or so.
“The last player [before Messi] I know who had the same influence on a team performance was Diego Maradona, another Argentinian. Mo is in a fantastic way, that’s for sure. As it always is in life if you have to have the skills, you have to show that constantly. Consistently he is very good and he helps us a lot.
“Conditions were difficult. It was obviously slippery and everybody suffered, but not Mo in that situation. It was really special.”
The joie de vivre that Salah both played with and provoked was evident from as early as the third minute when he gave Liverpool a lead they never once looked like losing.
Salah’s remarkable season began with a goal against Watford on the opening day of the campaign, and it continued with aplomb here as he latched onto a Sadio Mané ball, bamboozled Miguel Britos to such an extent that he eventually fell over, and then calmly threaded past Orestis Karnezis.
The goal meant Watford’s parsimonious gameplan lay in tatters but, to their credit, they did manage to keep Liverpool relatively quiet for the remainder of the first half – although Roberto Firmino was denied what would have been a stunning second goal when his 20-yard shot was superbly stopped by Karnezis.
Liverpool would not be denied for long, though. Just before the break they again swarmed forward and when the ebullient and rock-steady Andy Robertson delivered a pinpoint cross to Salah in the middle of the six-yard box, the Egyptian could not miss.
Liverpool 5-0 Watford
- Goal scorers:
- Mohamed Salah 4
- Mohamed Salah 43
- Roberto Firmino 49
- Mohamed Salah 77
- Mohamed Salah 85
theguardian