Mohamed Salah leads departing Premier League stars to add new twist to title race

On the first day of Mohamed Salah’s sixth new year as a Liverpool player, he marched past another milestone. His 150th Premier League goal for the club had been briefly postponed by a penalty being saved. He made full amends in the second half of Liverpool’s 4-2 victory over Newcastle United with two goals of his own and two superb passes in the immediate lead-in to two more.

Quite a souvenir for a fan base anticipating what might be 30 days of Salah’s absence, should Egypt, spearheaded by their superstar make it to their third Africa Cup of Nations final in four attempts.

Salah certainly intends to be in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on February 12 for the final.

“I want to win this competition, would love to win it,” he said on departing a rapturous Anfield, bound for Africa. “It’s a great feeling every time I step on the field with the national team jersey, something I cannot take for granted.”

Nor can Salah take it for granted that Liverpool will still be on their elevated perch by the time he returns, as many as eight club games later, including four in the league. Thanks to an exhilarating performance against Newcastle, there is a cushion of three points between their top place and Aston Villa in second, but the cluster of teams around the top is still tight.

Salah was generous towards his colleagues: “We have fantastic players, who can play in my position, and who can do what I am doing,” he said.

But while Diogo Jota, on a Salah-like counter-attack, won one penalty on Monday, and Luis Diaz, with some nimble, Salah-style footwork another and Trent Alexander-Arnold produced a glorious moment of daring and enterprise from Salah’s favoured right flank, nobody departed Anfield imagining Jurgen Klopp’s team are as reliably