When Liverpool visits Fulham this afternoon, Mohamed Salah will be hoping to build on his impressive first-day record and top another Premier League position.
Salah is the only player in the history of the Premier League to have scored in the season opener five times in a row.
Salah has scored seven goals already this season, including one each against Watford, West Ham, Leeds, and two times against Norwich.
In the history of the Premier League, only Alan Shearer, Wayne Rooney, and Frank Lampard (each with eight) have scored more goals. Jamie Vardy has seven as well.
Salah has only made five appearances (less than half of the appearances than all above him on the list played.
In contrast, Virgil van Dijk has scored in two of the Reds’ last three games played on opening day.
Today, Liverpool will make Premier League history by taking on a newly promoted team for the first time on the first day of four straight seasons.
They played Leeds in 2019 and Norwich again the following year.
They last suffered a top-flight defeat in their first game against a side that had been promoted in 1929, going down 5-0 against Middlesbrough.
Liverpool has scored 15 goals in its last four league opening weekend victories.
The last time they drew their opening league game of a season was in 2017, a 3-3 draw against Watford. Hornets head coach Marco Silva was in charge.
In their last six games played on opening day, they have won five and drawn one, scoring 22 goals and never doing so less than three times.
In August 2012, they suffered their most recent opening-day defeat at West Brom, falling 3-0 in Brendan Rodgers’ first league game as manager.
Since then, out of nine games, they have won eight and drawn one.
For Liverpool, James Milner might make his 200th league appearance.
Thiago might participate in the Reds’ 50th league game in the meantime.
In four Premier League appearances for Fulham in 2020–2021, Fabio Carvalho scored once—in a 3–1 loss to Southampton.
He had 10 goals in 36 Championship games the previous campaign and scored in the Cottagers’ final home game, a 7-0 victory over Luton Town.
Harvey Elliott made history in the Premier League in May 2019 at the age of 16 years and 30 days when playing for Fulham in a road loss at Wolves.
For Fulham, he had three substitute appearances in the first team.
A new record for the second tier was set by Aleksandar Mitrovic last season, surpassing Guy Whittingham’s 32 goals while playing for Portsmouth in 1992/93.
In 177 games with Fulham, Mitrovic has 96 goals and 18 assists.
But in his most recent Premier League outing, he only started 13 of his 27 games while scoring three goals.
