Unai Emery has ranked Mohamed Salah among the top five players in the world and revealed he considered signing the Liverpool forward during his time in charge of Paris Saint-Germain but decided against doing so because he felt the Egyptian could not handle the pressure of playing for a big club.
The Arsenal manager takes his team to Anfield on Saturday for what looks set to be their toughest test of the season so far. Liverpool sit top having won their past eight games as they seek a first league title since 1990. They also remain unbeaten, still with a chance of becoming English football’s latest invincibles, following the Arsenal team who were champions under Arsène Wenger 14 years ago. Emery is among those who believe they are capable of those feats and is in no doubt which of Jürgen Klopp’s men has impressed him most, a player the Spaniard had his eye on long before arriving in England.
“We spoke about the possibility to sign Salah to Paris Saint-Germain when he was playing at Roma,” Emery said. “We had some doubts, and then he signed for Liverpool [in June 2017] and these doubts he has broken. Now if you are speaking about the five top players in the world, one is Salah. Today I can say to you, if we sign him, we sign one player in the top five in the world.”
Asked what those doubts were, Emery, who was at PSG for two years before succeeding Wenger at Arsenal last May, replied: “How he can take the performance in one big team. For example like PSG.”
Salah has proved all doubters wrong during his time at Anfield and after a somewhat slow start to the season has recaptured his best form in recent weeks, scoring six times in his past five appearances for Liverpool as a right-sided attacker or, as was the case during the 4-0 win against Newcastle on Boxing Day, as a lone centre-forward. Arsenal will have their work cut out stopping not only the 26-year-old but also the likes of Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mané, and they travel to Merseyside having not kept a clean sheet in four games.
Their most recent match was the 1-1 draw with Brighton, after which Emery was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association for kicking a bottle at a home supporter, an incident that could lead to a touchline ban. Injuries to defensive personnel are partly behind that run, so it comes as a boost to Arsenal that Shkodran Mustafi has returned to training following three weeks out with a hamstring injury. The German could feature at Anfield, as could Nacho Monreal, who also missed the trip to the Amex Stadium because of a hamstring strain.
It has been reported that Mesut Özil will definitely not play, however, having complained of pain in his knee during training on Friday.
Despite Arsenal having not won at Anfield since September 2012, Emery is relishing the challenge of coming up against the league leaders, describing it as a “good test” for his players, who sit fifth, two points outside the Champions League places.
“Three years ago they [Liverpool] had a problem in their defensive moments and bought some people, for example [Virgil] van Dijk, with good investment and the result is we are looking at them and their progress,” he said. “They are established with Klopp and for us it is a good example and a good test; how is the difference between them and us. They are unbeaten and with many great performances as a team and also individually, but we need, and we can take, this test.”