LONDON: With Mohamed Salah once again in unstoppable form, Liverpool crushed West Ham United 5-0 at the London Stadium on Sunday to increase their lead in the Premier League to eight points.
The Reds finished the season as overwhelming favorites to win just their second league title in 35 years, with goals from Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Diogo Jota.
Despite the uncertainties around a new deal, Salah has been having a fantastic season. He scored one goal and contributed two assists as Liverpool crushed their inferior hosts.
Salah vehemently denied reports that the 32-year-old and the Reds were drawing closer to an agreement in recent weeks.
“That is a long way off,” Salah told Sky Sports.
Nothing much has changed, but I don’t want to post something in the media and have people start saying things. I’m now concentrating on the squad, and I hope we win the Premier League.
In the first season under Dutch manager Arne Slot, Salah has scored and assisted in eight Premier League games, now has 20 goals in all competitions this season, and seems to be leading Liverpool to their 20th league championship.
With 18 games played, Liverpool has 45 points, while Nottingham Forest, the surprise package, is their nearest rival with 37 points after one more game.
Slot was thrilled to see five different players on the scoreboard on Sunday, but his team had given up nine goals in their last four games, so it was as satisfying to keep a clean sheet for the first time in five games.
“One of the reasons you win a lot is having clean sheets. It’s challenging if you have to score two, three, or four goals every time,” he remarked.
We do so now, but it won’t be sustainable in the long run.
“You need to win sometimes by scoring one or two goals and keeping a clean sheet.”
On what should have been a beautiful day, Liverpool’s defender Joe Gomez suffered a hamstring injury during the game and will be sidelined for a while.
“You witnessed Joe Gomez’s injury today. Slot told Sky Sports that a player must be changed if he expresses a desire to stop.
We all know it’s a hamstring injury during a sprint, and we all know it will take some time for him to recover. He will be gone for a while, but I’m not sure how long.
