Premier League legend Thierry Henry has been talking Mohamed Salah, Liverpool and the title battle with Chelsea
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Thierry Henry speaking on Monday Night Football
Thierry Henry speaking on Monday Night Football
(Image: Sky Sports)
He may be set to overhaul him in the list of all-time Premier League top scorers, but Thierry Henry is full of praise for Mohamed Salah. And the Arsenal legend is also certainly impressed by the Egyptian superstar's team-mates and manager.
While the Reds' rise to the top of the Premier League and Champions League tables, as well as the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, has been the result of a collective squad effort, there is no doubt who their talisman is.
Salah has 13 goals in 15 Premier League games so far this season, leaving him joint top of the scoring charts with Manchester City's Erling Haaland. It also means he now has 170 Premier League goals in total to his name, which places him eighth on the list and five away from Henry in seventh with 175 and Frank Lampard in sixth with 177.
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All but two of those 170 goals have come for Liverpool. The others came for Chelsea, where he spent a short spell at the start of his career before moving to Italy.
It was at Fiorentina and then Roma that a superstar began to emerge but it's been at Anfield that he has been truly unleashed. And, despite being 32, Salah shows no sign of slowing down.
"It’s for me the, 'I can’t make it at Chelsea, so I go to Fiorentina and Roma and now I’ll show you that I can make it in this league'," said Henry on Monday Night Football
"He went from thinking a lot about scoring goals and he still does. But now he’s like, ‘can I see before? Can I assist early? Can I do something different?’
"That’s a sign of a guy that uses his intelligence. The way he left the Premier League and the way he came back - it’s astonishing."
Henry makes a good point. Only Arsenal's Bukayo Saka (10) has more assists than Salah (9) so far this season and you would not put it past him if he wins both the Premier League's Golden Boot and Playmaker awards for the second time in his Reds career.
The Egyptian set up the first of Liverpool's two equalisers against Fulham on Saturday when his pinpoint cross was headed in by Cody Gakpo.
Despite playing most of the match with 10 men after Andy Robertson's early sending off, Arne Slot's side pushed the Cottagers further and further back and came desperately close to a miraculous victory.
And Henry said: "When I see Liverpool play, it looks like they’re trying to win it. I see other teams play and it’s like, ‘let’s not lose it’.
"When I see Liverpool play against Fulham with 10 men, how can you send five bodies in between lines and have a way of trying to create goals or opportunities. If you go and win the league you have to go and grab it and win it."
The 2-2 draw allowed Chelsea to close the gap on the Reds to two points with a 2-1 derby victory at home to Brentford on Sunday.
But Henry has doubts over whether Enzo Maresca's young side are ready to win the title. He said: "We've seen teams before that nobody expected to do it, reaching it. But I'm just thinking one thing they still didn't do is to beat a team that's in and around them.
"They still didn't beat a big team. They came back against Tottenham (to win 4-3), but show me you can beat Liverpool, show me you can beat (Manchester) City, show me you can beat Arsenal, and then you will be like, 'oh, hang on a minute, wait'. You see what I mean? There is a step there."
Chelsea have the chance to go top on Sunday with victory at Everton. Liverpool then play Tottenham Hotspur away.
And Jamie Carragher believes the Stamford Bridge outfit, not for the first time in recent years, could have a difficult afternoon at Goodison Park.
"I think Chelsea against Everton next weekend is really important," said the former Reds favourite on Monday Night Football. "You might say, Chelsea are near the top of the league and Everton are near the bottom, but when I look at the things that worry me about Chelsea in terms of winning the league - a goalkeeper, maybe two centre-backs - Goodison Park is the kind of place where something like that would show up.
"If they can go to Goodison, keep a clean sheet and win, you think, 'oh, okay'. That's one of those results where it's a team near the bottom but you know it's a tough place to go. If your goalkeeper's not at it or your two centre-backs are not at it... set-pieces, Everton's tight pitch... you can come a cropper there."