This Week in Stats: Mohamed Salah is a phenomenon

Is there anything Mohamed Salah can’t do? West Brom’s relegation is almost confirmed, but Crystal Palace picked up a vital win to stay in the survival hunt.

Mohamed Salah looks at record books and laughs. The Egyptian marvel has now scored the most goals by any Liverpool player in their first season with the club. He’s four goals clear in the race for the Premier League golden boot, but only two players have more assists than he does.

Salah scored four goals from four shots, becoming the first player to do so in the English top flight since 2008-09. His assist for Firmino made him the first man to directly contribute to five goals in one match this season.

Two thirds of the division have been involved in fewer league goals than Salah has. This list of facts could continue, but there were other aspects of the match which are also worth discussing.

Not least that Watford had their best spell when the score was only 1-0. Liverpool would probably have still won, but few things make Anfield more anxious than when the Reds get pegged back.

Jordan Henderson made some mistakes in this period, but over the course of the match he completed the most long passes and final third passes of any Liverpool player. Jurgen Klopp will allow for the occasional error if Henderson can maintain his fine passing.

Watford only crafted one goal attempt while they were on top, and it proved to be their only clear-cut chance or shot on target of the match. However, had Richarlison not headed straight at Loris Karius things might’ve become interesting.

As it was, Andy Robertson then played the cross of the match, and Salah sent the Reds in two up at the break. Danny Ings was unlucky not to get a long-awaited goal in the second half, but when Orestis Karnezis spilled his second effort Salah picked up his fourth goal of the night.

With their No. 11 in such devastating form, Liverpool’s defensive record is passing under the radar. Their clean sheet here means they’ve had 18 shutouts in their last 38 league games. They’ve also only conceded 37 goals in that period.

Both of these are records for Klopp in his time at Liverpool. Many will point to the arrival of Virgil van Dijk, and Karius establishing himself in goal. They have helped, but the improved defensive trends have been there for a while now.

But it’s Mohamed Salah who takes the headlines here, and deservedly so. He’s just three goals short of the Premier League goalscoring record for a 38 game season. Only a fool would bet against him setting a new benchmark before the season is out.

West Brom are surely down now

Prior to this weekend, only three teams in the Premier League had won fewer home matches than Bournemouth. Alan Pardew will have targeted this as a match where his West Brom side could keep their slim survival hopes alive.

The Baggies boss would have been delighted to go in level at halftime, and ecstatic when Jay Rodriguez put his side in front early in the second period. Salomon Rondon may have got the assist, but Kieran Gibbs’ fine cross to him was the goal’s key component.

Much like Robertson did for Liverpool, Gibbs would go on to create a clear-cut chance from a cross later in the match. But by the time he did, West Brom were behind.

Bournemouth had been on a fine scoring run in the league, having found the net in their previous 11 matches. West Brom’s goalkeeper Ben Foster will have been disappointed to concede from Jordon Ibe’s long range effort, but the goal was coming.

As was the winner, in a way. Junior Stanislas had taken two shots from free-kicks, putting one on target and one just over. It was then third time lucky with a minute to play, as he scored to win the match for the Cherries.

Goals from direct free-kicks are surprisingly rare; there have been just 13 in the Premier League this season. And few will have been as decisive as this one was.

The result meant Bournemouth became the first team in the top flight to win four matches after conceding first in 2017-18. Of course, they’ve had more opportunities to do so than many teams; Manchester City have won three times from the five games when they’ve gone behind.

More importantly, the result left West Brom 10 points adrift of safety with just seven games to play. A team which has only won three league games all season probably needs to win at least five to stay up. It won’t happen, and the Baggies will spend 2018-19 in the Championship.

Next: What do we want from Jose Mourinho?

Palace won this week’s basement battle

Huddersfield average 10.7 shots per home game. It’s the joint-second lowest figure in the Premier League, only slightly ahead of Swansea on 10. The law of averages doesn’t tend to work on a sample of two, but having recorded 30 shots in their draw with the Swans last time out, they were going to have far fewer this week.

In fact, they only had six goal attempts against Crystal Palace, and just one before they found themselves 2-0 down. The visitors were by far the better side, and well worth the three points. Palace were always likely to do well as their star man, Wilfried Zaha, was making his first start for five league matches.

“With and without player x” statistics are hugely problematic in soccer. There are countless variables involved in what’s a low scoring sport, so how can you isolate one person’s contribution? However, Palace have lost all nine league matches Zaha has missed in 2017-18, and he was involved in their best moves at Huddersfield.

This included a pass to Andros Townsend, from which the former Tottenham man went on to win a penalty. It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Palace got a spot kick in this match, as the stats suggested they might.

The Eagles have won the joint-most penalties in the division, while Huddersfield have conceded the joint-most. On top that, the match referee, Mike Dean, awards them more frequently than any other regular Premier League ref. It was written in the numbers.

It was interesting that an Englishman won a penalty and not Christian Benteke, who had a decent claim for one earlier in the half. Evidence emerged this week that British players win a disproportionate amount of penalties in the Premier League, and the trend continued here. It’s just coincidental though, right?

It was therefore Crystal Palace who won this week’s massive game at the bottom of the table. The international break begins with just five points separating the teams in 13th and 19th. Palace’s next match is at home to Liverpool. They’d better keep a close eye on Mohamed Salah.