Salah double pushes Liverpool 9 points clear in Premier League
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Bournemouth and Liverpool at the Vitality stadium in Bournemouth, England, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
Mohamed Salah’s double helped Liverpool pass a huge test of its Premier League title credentials after winning at in-form Bournemouth 2-0 and establishing a nine-point lead on Saturday.
High-flying rival Nottingham Forest also made a statement of its own in a record rout of Brighton by 7-0.
Salah moved above Chelsea great Frank Lampard to sixth on the all-time Premier League scoring chart, on 178 goals, by converting a 30th-minute penalty and curling in a beautiful second in the 75th.
READ: Salah sets goal record by inspiring Liverpool win over Tottenham
The Egypt forward has 21 goals in what could be his last Premier League campaign with Liverpool, with whom his contract is up at the end of the season. It’s the fifth time he has netted 20 or more league goals in a single season for the club.
It ended Bournemouth’s 11-match unbeaten run in the league and left Liverpool with a commanding advantage over both second-placed Arsenal and third-placed Forest, which bounced back from a 5-0 loss last weekend — also at Bournemouth — by demolishing Brighton for its biggest victory in the Premier League era.
Chris Wood scored a hat trick for Forest, which is on course to qualify for a European competition next season — potentially even the Champions League by securing a finish in the top four or five.
Arsenal hosts Manchester City on Sunday and will look to trim the gap to Liverpool back down to six points.
Liverpool gets lucky but Alexander-Arnold injured
Liverpool will be tough to stop now, with just 15 games left of a campaign in which Arne Slot’s team has shown plenty of resilience to lose only once.
The Dutch manager acknowledged Liverpool’s latest win came with a hint of fortune, with Bournemouth twice hitting the post and seeing Justin Kluivert shooting wide in front of an open goal.
READ: Liverpool routs Spurs to take 4-point lead into Christmas
“If you want to win here, maybe you need a bit of luck because the margins are so small,” Slot said.
“It was a close call for us to win this game. We weren’t unlucky, let’s put it that way.”
Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold went off in the 70th with a suspected thigh injury and will undergo a scan. Slot said he would “be surprised” if Alexander-Arnold played against Tottenham in the second leg of the English League Cup semifinals on Thursday, when Liverpool will look to overturn a 1-0 deficit.
