'Believe it or not': Paul Merson explains why he thinks Cole Palmer has been better than Mo Salah this season
01/02/2025 04:30 AM
With the Premier League season now at the halfway point, pundits are starting to rethink their predictions.
Not many had Liverpool down as being title favourites at the start of the campaign, but that is where the Reds undeniably find themselves.
Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League table was cut to six points on Wednesday as Arsenal beat Brentford.
But with a game in hand also in their pocket, the Reds should be feeling confident heading into 2025.
One of the reasons they’ll believe that the Premier League title is theirs to lose is because of the form of Mohamed Salah.
Salah has been ridiculously good this term, breaking all kinds of records to sit well clear in both the goal scoring and assisting charts. But according to Paul Merson, Cole Palmer of Chelsea has somehow been better.
Paul Merson backs Cole Palmer over Mo Salah
Not a week seems to go by at the moment in which Salah does not break another record.
The Egyptian is in the form of his life having hit 17 goals and set up 13 more for his Liverpool teammates.
But while Rio Ferdinand thinks Salah is on course for the Ballon d’Or, former Arsenal midfield Merson has told Sky Sports that Palmer has been better.
“I still go Palmer,” says the pundit. “I think he’s had a massive, massive difference to Chelsea, I think he’s made them a much better team, he’s been involved a lot more.”
READ MORE: Where Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah ranks for goal contributions in 2024 compared to Cole Palmer
“Salah’s playing in an unbelievable team with unbelievable players. And believe it or not I think he’s more consistent than Salah in a game of 90 minutes, I think he’s involved more.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love Salah, he’s different class, one of the best in the world,” adds Merson. “But sometimes you watch Salah and he’ll do something and you’ll go ‘really?!’ or he’ll put one over the bar and you’ll go ‘really?!’.”
“Salah can not touch the ball and score two goals in two minutes but Palmer’s carried Chelsea, he’s been a catalyst. I don’t think Salah’s been a catalyst, I think he’s in a very, very good team.
“This lad has taken Chelsea to the brink of getting into the Champions League and they were in a title race up until two weeks ago.”
Palmer press is getting out of hand
This is a sensationally bad take from Merson. Palmer may have had a very good season, scoring 12 times and laying on six assists, and it’s true that he has been the figurehead for Chelsea. But whatever way you look at it, Salah has been in another stratosphere.
Goals and assists do not always tell the whole story, of course, but Merson suggesting that Palmer never goes missing is a misnomer in itself.
Curtis Jones locked Palmer up when Chelsea visited Anfield in October, with the England man never looking dangerous a single time during the game.
Palmer has also regularly failed to make an impact against the top teams in the division, while Salah is consistently the main man whenever the big boys come to town.
In any other season we may let this slide, but Salah is right now posting numbers that the Premier League has never seen before. If he keeps his form even faintly going for the second half of the campaign, there’s no way Palmer or anyone else should be anywhere near his award.
