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The Premier League’s leading African scorers in focus as Mohamed Salah tops list

Mohamed Salah’s hat-trick against Manchester United continued the Liverpool man’s sparkling run of form and made him the Premier League’s leading African goalscorer.

The Egypt forward went into the game level on 104 goals with former Chelsea frontman Didier Drogba and broke the tie in style.

Here, the PA news agency looks at the top five.

Mohamed Salah, Egypt

Premier League: leading African goalscorers
Mohamed Salah moved clear of Didier Drogba as the Premier League’s leading African goalscorer (PA graphic)

107 goals for Chelsea and Liverpool

After a false start with Chelsea, Salah has established himself among the world’s elite with Liverpool. He has won two Premier League Golden Boots, with his 32 goals in 2017-18 a record for a 38-game season while the following season brought an all-African three-way tie with team-mate Sadio Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. He reached the record by becoming the first visiting player ever to score a Premier League hat-trick at Old Trafford.

Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast

Didier Drogba celebrates Chelsea's 2014-15 Premier League title win
Didier Drogba celebrates Chelsea’s 2014-15 Premier League title win (Mike Egerton/PA)

104 goals for Chelsea

Another two-time Golden Boot winner, with 20 goals in 2006-07 and his best Premier League return of 29 three years later, Drogba won four titles with the Blues as well as four FA Cups, three League Cups and the 2011-12 Champions League. He scored nine goals in nine cup finals and was voted the club’s greatest ever player in a 2012 poll by Chelsea magazine.

Sadio Mane, Senegal

Sadio Mane, right, and Mohamed Salah
Sadio Mane, right, and Salah have thrived together at Liverpool (Peter Byrne/PA)

100 goals for Southampton and Liverpool

Mane, 29, has reached double figures in every Premier League season since joining Southampton in 2014, peaking with 22 in that Golden Boot campaign, and is already halfway to keeping that sequence going this term as well as bringing up his top-flight century. He, Salah, Roberto Firmino and latterly Diogo Jota have given Jurgen Klopp’s side a fearsome strikeforce.

Emmanuel Adebayor, Togo

Soccer – Barclays Premier League – Manchester City v Arsenal – City of Manchester Stadium
Emmanuel Adebayor celebrates scoring for Manchester City against his former club Arsenal in 2009 (Nick Potts/PA)

97 goals for Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham and Crystal Palace

Much-travelled and often controversial, the Togo international was nevertheless a reliable source of goals in his peak years – hitting 24 for Arsenal in 2007-08, 14 in his first season with Manchester City and 17 on loan at Spurs in 2011-12. A farewell season with Palace added a fourth club to his personal scoresheet.

Aiyegbeni Yakubu, Nigeria

Aiyegbeni Yakubu celebrates scoring for Middlesbrough
Yakubu celebrates scoring for Middlesbrough (Anna Gowthorpe/PA)

95 goals for Portsmouth, Middlesbrough, Everton and Blackburn

Yakubu made an immediate impact after joining Portsmouth in 2003, scoring 16 goals in his first season in the Premier League and reaching double figures five years in succession. After a loss of form with Everton, he bounced back with a career-high 17 Premier League goals for Blackburn in 2011-12.