Farewell to Mohamed Salah.
A faintly ridiculous 193 goals and 93 assists in the Premier League. 286 goal involvements in 327 appearances — a record surpassed only by Alan Shearer (324) and Wayne Rooney (311), both of whom made at least 100 more appearances.
The only player to have been named PFA Player of the Year three times.
One of English football’s greatest imports and Africa’s greatest exports. A phenomenon #LFC
https://t.co/kGRPVHumsK
4:18 – Arsenal have the longest time delays before taking corners in the Premier League this season, over 2 hours in total, averaging 4 minutes 18 seconds per match. Delay.
117 - Arsenal have taken a league-high total of 117 minutes to restart games from corners in the Premier League this season; indeed, they also have the longest average delay of restart from corners (44 seconds). Drained.
🗣️ "No matter how big the player, match-going supporters will always back a manager who has won trophies and forged a bond with the fans," writes Jamie Carragher.
Read more from @Carra23 about Slot and Salah here 👇
https://t.co/kCsso4bEZf
‘Salah hasn’t done anything with Egypt’ always rears its head to discount him whether it’s award voting or just point scoring.
Do you know what Egyptian football has been through? How hard it has toiled to rise from the abyss. And who the country considers the most pivotal player to their rebirth?
The violent uprisings. The 2012 Port Said stadium tragedy where 74 people lost their lives with over 500 injured that led to the shutdown of the domestic league causing financial ruin, lack of competitiveness, erosion of facilities, spectator bans. Police tear-gassing fans leading to a stampede and more deaths in 2015…
And so with all that instability, the most successful team in African Cup of Nations history didn’t qualify for the 2012, 2013 and 2015 versions of the tournament.
It was Salah who scored twice away to Tanzania in qualifying to put them back at an AFCON for the first time since 2010... And was instrumental in getting them to two finals.
Egypt’s first World Cup appearance since 1990? It was Salah who kept his nerve to slot a 95th-minute penalty booking their place in the 2018 showpiece; their top scorer in the qualifying campaign.
And his nine goals to fire them to WC 2026 has made him the all-time top scorer in African qualifying history.
Egypt’s current generation, led by Salah, have put in a shift to just be back on these main stages after so much turmoil.
@robbohuyton@cubbycub1981@BBCMOTD If we accept the majority of players have played badly. Apart from Szboz who has played well in any given match? I'll tell you who, Mo Salah against Madrid, Atletico, Villa, Bournemouth. Very difficult to say that about any other player
@EHcomps So his parents kept him away from English media but wanted him to play in a country that openly has fans shouting racist abuse to black players. Okay wrighty.
Scotland and Liverpool defender Andrew Robertson via BBC:
“Today I’ve been in bits. I know the age I'm at, this could be my last chance to go to the World Cup.
“I couldn’t get my mate Diogo Jota out of my head today. We spoke so much together about the World Cup. He missed out on Qatar [2022 World Cup] because of injury, I missed out because Scotland never went.
“We always discussed what it would be like, going to this World Cup. I know he’ll be somewhere smiling over me tonight. I just couldn’t get him out of my head the whole day.”
FT: 🇭🇺 2-3 🇮🇪
An emotional Troy Parrott reacts to securing a play-off place for Ireland in Budapest.
'This is why we love football because things like this can happen... I love where I'm from, my family are here, this means the world to me.'
📺 @rte2@rteplayer
Man City v Liverpool in 2019 was the highest quality Premier League game we’ve ever seen. Pep’s team won the PL, Klopp’s won the CL.
It was about false 9’s, inverted full backs & fast attacking football.
This season has been about corners & long throws
https://t.co/6RjOocYYqd
Brentford have spent more than a combined 70 minutes preparing for throw-ins during matches this season, while more than 10 minutes have been lost to the tactic in two of Tottenham's games so far.
The return of the long throw adds a new threat, theatre and goals. But it also brings delays and more time when the ball is not in play.
Does something need to be done? A countdown clock is one solution that has been discussed by football's lawmakers this week.
📝 @NickMiller79
🔗 https://t.co/o2S0s2Uea2
@Jassisidhu He wasn't fully fit at the end of last season. Niggling injuries have kept him out of the team for nearly 3 months. I'd question his determination to play.