He may not be at his best yet, but there are just a few more decisive players in the Premier League than Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian king lived up to its old tricks in Bournemouth with his hat-trick in Liverpool’s 4-0 win at Vitality Stadium. As an individual performance, this was something special. He sent his team to the top of the league, standing firm in the dispute with Manchester City for the championship.

Salah is struggling, apparently. He’s not happy, not his best, and he has lost himself with the ridiculous standards he set for himself last season.

And yet he has 10 goals in this edition of the Premier League. More than Harry Kane or Sergio Aguero, Eden Hazard or Raheem Sterling. He is the division’s top scorer along with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Since the start of the season, only Lionel Messi has scored more in the top five leagues in Europe.

And he also scores important goals. Seven goals from Salah opened the game scores. When Liverpool needs him, he steps up. An invaluable asset to any side; for those who crave winning the Premier League, this could make all the difference. Important players are certainly a good thing to teams that are hopping for titles, once they can appear individually and make the difference in difficult matches.

He scored against West Ham and Brighton against Huddersfield, Cardiff, Fulham, and Watford. And at Vitality Stadium, Salah returned to swing the net, and not only once, but three times (even though the first goal, after the powerful shot of Roberto Firmino, he was a little offside).

This Saturday, the first goal was made by instinct, the second was pure quality and obstinacy. And the third, certainly was the classic Mohamed Salah, that one that all of us used to see last season and were missing pretty much. Now he has 54 goals in 74 matches for Liverpool and it looks like this number is growing bigger and bigger, which, for Liverpool fans, is simply perfect.