Mohamed Salah's surprise verdict on Premier League 'favourites' threatening to end Liverpool's quest for record-breaking title
Updated 20/08/2025 at 14:49 GMT+1
Mohamed Salah revealed who he thinks will pose the biggest threat to Liverpool's chances of retaining their Premier League title. The PFA Men's Player of the Year believes the main contenders come from the capital, highlighting how Arsenal's togetherness as an established group of players could be enough to win the top domestic prize for the first time since the 2003/04 season.
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Mohamed Salah gave his surprise verdict on who he believes are the favourites to win the Premier League title this season.
Liverpool are being widely tipped to retain the crown this season and claim an outright-record 21st championship, but Salah believes that a certain team from north London has the edge.
Despite failing to finish top of the table since Arsene Wenger’s 2003/04 'Invincibles', Salah says Arsenal are the team to beat.
Salah was speaking at Tuesday night’s PFA Awards ceremony, as the Egyptian won the Player of the Year award for a record third time.
According to Opta, he became only the second player to twice win the PFA Player of the Year, Premier League Player of the Year and Football Writers' Football of the Year in the same season - Cristiano Ronaldo previously doing it in 2006/07 and 2007/08.
When asked about Arsenal, Salah said: "I think you have a great team this season as you did last season. So, you have [a] really good chance.
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"I think you are the favourite now because you have players who have been together for five years. I can’t say I’ll wish you luck – hopefully we do it again."
Mikel Arteta's side have finished second in each of the past three seasons, leading to scepticism that The Gunners can end their long wait for a top-flight crown.
They took a step forward in Europe last term, reaching the UEFA Champions League semi-finals, where they were beaten 3-1 on aggregate by eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.
The Gunners started this season with a nervy 1-0 win away at Manchester United, courtesy of Riccardo Calafiori’s first-half header.
Arteta claimed that Liverpool’s domestic triumph ‘hurts’ in his comments to the media back in May before their 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth.
He said: "Yes, [it hurts] big time. "I understand that it's a team who have been more consistent, they've had the ingredients to win it and it's been painful.
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"I want to congratulate Liverpool and what they've done, the manner they've done it and how consistent they've been, and I think they fully deserved to win it."
"They've been the better team, had the better attributes, had their squad available consistently and we are going to try again.
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"They've had this distraction [with Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold's contracts], but they still had them on the pitch the whole time, which is positive.
"They are a club who over the last 10 years have been fighting for trophies, winning big trophies like the Champions League. They are deserved champions."
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