Mohamed Salah’s best individual season in comparison to Premier League Impact Strikers

By Elume Raymond™ – Sports Data Analyst

Mohamed Salah has recorded 31 goal involvements in just 19 Premier League games this season, a feat that no one else has ever achieved so quickly. His performance in the 2024-25 campaign could go down as one of the most iconic individual seasons in Premier League football history.

At 32, Salah continues to defy expectations. Many might have assumed that by this age, Liverpool would be seeing the tail end of his peak, which could explain their current dilemma of potentially losing him on a free transfer in just six months.

But the reality is clear: we are watching greatness unfold. Salah is on a path that is setting him apart from every other player in Premier League history.

Mohamed Salah is having arguably the greatest Premier League season ever by an attacker.
This isn’t opinion; it’s a fact.

Salah currently holds the best minute-to-goal-contribution ratio of any Premier League player, and at 33 years old in June, there’s no indication he’s slowing down. Mo Salah is already etched into the conversation of all-time Premier League legends, with his goal contributions (goals and assists) solidifying his place among the greats.

For anyone who’s watched Salah this season, the idea that he might be on the decline seems absurd. He finished 2024 with more goal involvements (52) than any player from the top five leagues, outpacing everyone over the entire year.

The stats that prove Mo Salah is having his best Premier League season

With 31 goal contributions in 19 appearances, Salah is averaging a goal or an assist every 53 minutes.

That’s six minutes better than the second-best (Gabriel Jesus, Manchester City 2016-17, 59.1 minutes) and 10 minutes ahead of Erling Haaland’s 2022-23 campaign with City, the closest player on the list who also played over 1,000 minutes.

Salah has made his extraordinary level of performance the new norm, constantly breaking records along the way. No player had ever registered both a goal and an assist more than seven times in a single Premier League season—Salah has now done it eight times in just 19 matches. It feels like something out of a fantasy football career mode on the easiest difficulty. Yet, this is a 32-year-old in the prime of his career, doing it in real life and leading Liverpool’s title charge. He’s also become the fastest to reach 30 goal contributions, surpassing his Liverpool predecessor Luis Suarez, who took 19 matches.

The striking similarity between the two is
the inevitability of a goal or a chance every time they have the ball at their feet. Breaking such a record at any point in the season is impressive, but we must remember Liverpool are only halfway through the 2024-25 campaign, having played just 19 matches. If Salah keeps this pace up, he could score and assist in 16 matches, a total more than double what any other player has managed in a single Premier League season. While maintaining this level for the entire season is unlikely, it’s hard not to wonder just how high his limits might go. Looking at comparisons, Thierry Henry’s 2002-03 season stands out. He set the record for most assists in a Premier League season with 20—a feat matched by Kevin De Bruyne 17 years later, though he couldn’t surpass it. Henry’s 2002-03 campaign holds a special place in Premier League history, being the only instance where a player managed 20 goals and 20 assists in a single season (24goals, 20 assists). Based on current form, Salah is on track to become just the second player to reach such a remarkable achievement.

This marks his eighth consecutive season of hitting 20 goals in all competitions for Liverpool, solidifying his importance to the team. When assessing a player’s impact, it’s hard to argue with the significance of scoring and creating goals. Fair or not, attackers are often judged by their ability to contribute to the scoreboard—and Salah is poised to break a host of major records for his contributions. If he caps off the final six months of this season with a performance like this, it could be the ultimate mic drop, securing the greatest individual season the Premier League has ever seen.

Which attacking player had the best season in Premier League History?

Mohamed Salah is having the most statistically impressive Premier League season ever for an attacker, setting the record for the best minutes-played-to-goal-contributing ratio in the competition’s 33-year history after just 19 games in the 2024-25 season. But when it comes to determining the greatest attacking campaign in Premier League history, is there more to consider? Should a player who consistently outperforms his teammates week in and week out be valued more than one whose goals and assists were key to securing a title? Or is it all about winning the Golden Boot and dominating the league? In this piece, I’ll be highlighting the attacking players I believe had the best individual Premier League seasons. Feel free to share your thoughts, and let me know who you think deserves a spot on the list via my Twitter (X) account!

1) Erling Haaland (Manchester City 2022-23)

In his debut season, he made history as the first player to score home hat-tricks in three consecutive matches, and also became the fastest player to net three hat-tricks in Premier League history—achieving the feat in just eight games, surpassing Michael Owen’s previous record of 48 matches with Liverpool in the 1990s. The 22-year-old shattered goalscoring records during a season in which Manchester City claimed a historic treble, winning the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League. The Norwegian scored 36 goals and provided 8 assists in 35 Premier League appearances, claiming the Golden Boot and breaking Alan Shearer’s and Andy Cole’s long-standing record of 34 goals in a single Premier League season.

2) Luis Suarez (Liverpool 2013-14)

Suarez netted 31 goals in 33 Premier League appearances, along with 12 assists, forming a lethal partnership with Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling in Brendan Rodgers’ highoctane team. His incredible performances nearly led Liverpool to an unexpected title, as they went on a 11-match winning streak from February to late April. However, a defeat at home to Chelsea handed Manchester City the opportunity to capitalize and take the lead.

3) Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United 2007-08)

After three seasons in the Premier League, Cristiano Ronaldo had scored 18 goals. However, it was in his fourth season that he truly came of age, netting 17 goals. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson recognized the potential in the winger-turned-forward and moved him into a more central role. That season, Ronaldo delivered 31 goals and 7 assists in 34 games, alongside winning both team trophies and individual accolades. From that point on, he has never had a season with single-digit goals and has never looked back, fully embracing his focus on what matters most on the pitch: scoring goals.

4) Thierry Henry (Arsenal 2003-04).

The 2002-03 season marked Thierry Henry’s emergence as one of the most complete Premier League attackers, equally lethal as a creator and a finisher. I’m still not convinced the league has seen a forward better than peak Henry. But the 2003-04 season brought him even closer to his pinnacle. He scored 30 goals in the Premier League and provided 6 assists, driving the relentless force behind Arsenal’s title-winning Invincibles.

Henry started 37 of the 38 league matches and was named Premier League Player of the Year. Individually, it was a season deserving of a statue—and so Arsenal built one.

5) Didier Drogba (Chelsea 2009-10)

For Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea side that year—and for much of the next decade—Didier Drogba was a one-man forward line: a target man, a poacher, an aerial threat, and someone who could stretch the channels. He was both a No. 9 and a No. 10, capable of scoring everything from tap-ins to screamers, and everything in between. To truly understand Drogba’s greatness in his prime (29 goals, 10 assists in 32 games), consider this: before Drogba, teams typically played with two strikers; after him, they played with one.

6) Robin van Persie (Arsenal 2011-12)
In the 2011-12 season, Van Persie scored 30 goals and registered 11 assists in 38 appearances; the following year, after moving to Manchester United, he netted 26 goals and provided 9 assists in the same number of matches. In both seasons, he was the Premier League’s top scorer. However, when it comes to individual achievement, his near-singlehanded effort in leading a fairly average Arsenal team to a third-place finish just about edges it. Van Persie also ensured they qualified for the Champions League in his first season as
captain.

7) Stan Collymore (Nottingham Forest 1994-95)

“Get the ball to Stan” was the simple instruction to Nottingham Forest’s players, knowing he would take care of the rest—often in spectacular fashion, and sometimes from the halfway line if he was in the mood, which he almost always was. Collymore scored 25 goals that season, including 22 in the Premier League, along with 7 assists, helping Frank Clark’s newly-promoted team secure a third-place finish.

8) Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur 2012-13)

One of the true hallmarks of excellence in sport is the ability to succeed even when the opponent knows exactly what you’re going to do. That was Gareth Bale in 2012-13, time and time again. Andre Villas-Boas’ Tottenham side that season was almost entirely built around the hope that Bale would make a decisive impact at some point in every game.

The strategy was simple: stop Bale, stop Spurs—and yet, it didn’t matter. Bale’s brilliance was enough to secure fifth place in the Premier League, as he scored 21 goals in 33 league appearances and provided 4 assists.
Elume Raymond™ – Twitter/X: @elumeraymond