No Mo Salah? Liverpool look like sitting ducks for the Man City juggernaut | OneFootball

Mo Salah and the Premier League table.

With the new year now upon us, the Premier League title race is starting to take shape with Manchester City ominously moving into position to strike in the second half of the season, as is their wont. Could the African Cup of Nations and Asian Cup tilt things even further in their favour over the next five weeks?

After the final round of festive fixtures, nearly all the 40 players called up by their countries will depart for Ivory Coast and Qatar, where the two tournaments are taking place. The exception is Andre Onana, which must be working magic on the confidence of back-up goalkeeper Altay Bayindir.

But anyway, back to teams that actually have a hope of lifting the Premier League trophy in May, and the side currently sitting top of the table: Liverpool.

The Reds will be without the league’s joint-leading scorer and their talisman, Mohamed Salah, for what could be as many as seven games across all competitions if Egypt go all the way to the final on February 11.

This includes an FA Cup third-round trip to the Emirates to face Arsenal and almost certainly both legs of the League Cup semi-final with Fulham, but it’s league matters that will be of most pressing concern to everyone at Anfield.

With Egypt near certain to qualify for the knockout rounds, which start on January 27, Salah will definitely miss the game away to Bournemouth six days before, which has suddenly become one of the harder fixtures considering the Cherries’ stunning upturn in form.

Chelsea come to Merseyside on the 31st, where feasibly the 31-year-old could feature against his former club if his country do not make it past the last 16. A title six-pointer comes on the first weekend of February, with a second away game at Arsenal, while the final in Doha takes place a day before a home clash with Burnley.

Waturu Endo could also be missing for most of these fixtures given Japan are one of the favourites for the Asian Cup, and even though his form has picked up of late, his absence will not be felt within the same stratosphere as Salah’s.

As well as leading the goal charts with Erling Haaland, Salah has the most combined goal contributions, the most shots on targets and the most Big Chances both scored and created.

Simply put, he is Liverpool’s MVP and possibly the entire Premier League’s MVP, although such things are all relative. Other forwards will need to step up in his place, with Salah carrying much of the load so far this season for the Reds.

The 4-2 win against Newcastle on New Year’s Day was a strong start, with all of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota involved, via goals, assists, build-up play or an incredibly fortunate penalty in the latter’s case.

But Salah was the driving force in the win, scoring twice and assisting brilliantly for Gakpo, as well as missing the first of his two penalties.

The make-up of Liverpool’s attack without their star man is uncertain, with nobody else truly nailing down a starting spot this season for myriad reasons.

Of course, Salah, as well as Sadio Mane, did miss games two years ago, with both men making the final, but the Reds were a more settled side, with their midfield yet to be remodelled as it was last summer.

And here lies the Catch-22 situation for Klopp, as well as other managers in the league: is it better for a player to suffer knockout heartbreak and return early or go all the way and return with a major spring in their step for the run-in?

Salah’s league goalscoring form did dip after the penalty heartache of 2022, although it didn’t stop the Reds pushing City all the way to the final day – again, though, it was a different Liverpool side.

With a World Cup not a realistic aim, this is the single missing item on Salah’s glorious CV, and the one trophy he would cherish more than any he has won while on Merseyside.

There is also no guarantee he will get to play in another tournament, given age, the possibility of injury and so on. He will undoubtedly be gunning for ultimate glory over the next six weeks, and rightly so.

Of the other sides who can claim to still be in title contention, neither Arsenal (Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny) nor Aston Villa (Bertrand Traore) can use their tournament absentees as any type of excuse.

Spurs certainly can, with their equivalent of Salah, Heung-Min Son, likely to be away until mid-February with South Korea, and midfield pairing Pape Sarr and Yves Bissouma joining up with Senegal and Mali.

Added to their already lengthy injury list, Ange Postecoglou will head to Old Trafford to face United on January 14 without over half of his first-choice XI. It is entirely understandable if they drop off in the coming weeks, even if their manager is unlikely to use it as an excuse.

All of this, like the results that happened while they lifted the Club World Cup, plays into the hands of Pep Guardiola, who is one of just three managers not losing a player to either tournament.

With Kevin De Bruyne set to make his long-awaited return, and Erling Haaland too after his brief injury lay-off, it feels as if City are primed to strike after an iffy run of form prior to jetting off to Saudi Arabia to claim world glory.

Another team really had to build a lead, but the champions sit just five points off Liverpool, with a game in hand, and have a very favourable set of league fixtures in the next two months – they do not face any of the top eight sides until early March, and even then, it is a Manchester derby, which is unlikely to worry them too much.

A trip to St. James’ Park to face an ailing Newcastle side is the toughest of their upcoming fixtures.

It all has a sense of Groundhog Day about it – Liverpool being the only side capable of pushing City before they inevitably move clear in the spring.

A sixth title in seven seasons and a first-ever four-in-a-row in English football history? After the best first half of a league season in many a year, it would just reaffirm both City’s monopoly of the league and the urgent need for their 115 charges to be resolved ASAP for the credibility of the so-called ‘Best League in the World’.