LONDON – Egypt forward Mohamed Salah scored his 184th goal for Liverpool as the Reds defeated Tottenham 4-3 to keep alive their hopes of finishing in the English Premier League’s top four.
Salah’s 30th minute penalty kick is his 184th goal in 300 games to beat Robbie Fowler’s tally of 183 goals in 369 games.
The Pharaohs skipper is now sixth in Liverpool’s all-time goalscorers chart just two goals below Steven Gerrard, AFP reported.
Diogo Jota blasted a dramatic winner in the 94th minute just moments after Richarlison had headed Tottenham level in stoppage-time at Anfield.
Salah is also now on the brink of entering the top five, sitting just two strikes shy of fifth-placed Steven Gerrard (186 goals) among Liverpool’s greatest ever marksmen.
The No.11’s haul includes 135 in the Premier League, 42 in Champions League football, five in the Emirates FA Cup and one apiece in the League Cup and FA Community Shield.
That tally has been achieved over the course of exactly 300 appearances since Salah joined the Reds from AS Roma in the summer of 2017.
Curtis Jones put Liverpool ahead and Luis Diaz, starting for the first time since October after an injury-plagued campaign, netted the hosts’ second goal in the opening five minutes at Anfield.
Salah’s penalty extended Liverpool’s dominant start before Harry Kane reduced the deficit with his 208th Premier League goal.
The Tottenham striker is level with Wayne Rooney as the Premier League’s joint second highest all-time scorer behind Alan Shearer.
Kane’s strike was followed by late goals from Son Heung-min and Richarlison in an astonishing finale that climaxed with Jota’s winner.
A wild celebration from Jurgen Klopp left the Liverpool manager limping after injuring himself and earned a booking, with Tottenham caretaker boss Ryan Mason furious with the German’s show of emotion in front of the visitors’ bench.
Klopp’s passion play came amid Liverpool’s bid to salvage a disappointing season by qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
The Reds still have a mountain to climb to reach the top four as they sit seven points behind fourth placed Manchester United, who have a game in hand.
While Tottenham’s top four hopes are in tatters, Liverpool are unbeaten in their last six games and have won four in a row to climb to fifth place.
Sixth placed Tottenham are without a win in four games and sit nine points adrift of the top four with four matches left.
Mason is Tottenham’s third manager of a turbulent season that featured Antonio Conte leaving by mutual consent before his replacement Cristian Stellini was sacked after last weekend’s 6-1 thrashing at Newcastle.
Remarkably, Tottenham were just as dreadful in the opening stages on Merseyside as they were against Newcastle.
It took Liverpool just three minutes to breach the porous Tottenham defence as Trent Alexander-Arnold curled a superb cross to the far post, where Jones guided a cool finish past Fraser Forster for his first goal since 2021.
Tottenham had conceded five times in the first 21 minutes against Newcastle and they were in disarray again.
With Tottenham’s hapless defence unable to pick up Liverpool’s runners, Colombia winger Diaz doubled the lead in the fifth minute.
Salah’s pass sent Cody Gakpo racing into the area and he pulled a cross back from the byline for Diaz to volley home from close-range.
In the 14th minute, Cristian Romero’s reckless challenge sent Gakpo sprawling, conceding a penalty that Salah fired into the roof of the net.
Just as many did at Newcastle, once again a stream of disillusioned Tottenham fans headed to the exits well before half-time.
At least Kane hadn’t thrown in the towel and he netted in the 40th minute, volleying home from close-range after Ivan Perisic evaded Virgil van Dijk’s lunge to pick out the England captain.
That finally sparked a spell of Tottenham pressure and Son’s curler struck the post just before the interval.
Liverpool has hardly fared much better than Tottenham this season and a plane trailing a banner calling for the Reds’ American owners to sell up flew over Anfield at half-time.
Son’s fierce strike and Romero’s acrobatic volley both hit the post in the space of a minute after the break.
With Liverpool having lost all momentum in the second half, Son tucked a cool finish under Alisson Becker from Romero’s pass in the 77th minute.
When Richarlison headed his first league goal for Tottenham from Son’s free-kick in the second minute of stoppage-time, it seemed the visitors had authored a great escape.
But seconds later Jota pounced with a nerveless finish from an acute angle to send Klopp into a frenzy on the touchline.
Man City goes top of EPL
Erling Haaland scored his 50th goal of the season as Manchester City moved to the top of the Premier League.
The prolific striker fired the defending champions ahead from the penalty spot after only three minutes at Fulham. City went on to win 2-1 at Craven Cottage and moved one point ahead of long-time league leader Arsenal, with a game in hand.
Haaland’s goal saw him tie Alan Shearer and Andy Cole’s joint record of 34 goals in a Premier League campaign.
Both of those players reached their totals in 42-game seasons, while Haaland’s haul has come in a still unfinished 38-game campaign.
Haaland had already overtaken Mohamed Salah’s record of 32 goals in a 38-game season with his strike in the 4-1 win against Arsenal on Wednesday.
With City still having six more games to play in the league this season, the Norway international looks likely to set a new outright record.
Haaland fired past Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno from the spot after Julian Alvarez had been brought down by Tim Ream, who later injured his arm and was replaced by Issa Diop.
Fulham evened the score after 15 minutes through Carlos Vinicius, but City was back in front in the 36th from Alvarez’s strike.
