Crystal Palace star sure he can keep Mo Salah in check

Crystal Palace defender Patrick van Aanholt is relishing the challenge of keeping Mohamed Salah in check on Saturday.

Liverpool take on Palace at Anfield on Saturday looking to stretch their four-point lead at the top of the table and Salah will likely play on the right of Jurgen Klopp’s three-man attack and is set to come up against Van Aanholt.

The Egypt forward is finding his form and has scored nine goals in his last games to take his goal tally for the season to 17.

Van Aanholt though is confident he can “shut down” Salah, who netted against Palace last season in a 2-1 win over the Eagles in March.

“Yeah, I always want to play against the best and Salah is one of the best in the league,” Van Aanholt told Sky Sports.

“It’s my time to shut him down and make sure he doesn’t score or play well.

“If we can beat Liverpool like we beat City then I’ll be very happy. As well as the front three, they have (Xherdan) Shaqiri and (Daniel) Sturridge so it’s going to be hard but we’re capable of doing it. We did it against Manchester City so why can’t we do it again?”

The Egyptian ended his first campaign at Anfield having netted a staggering 44 goals and laid on a further 16 assists in 52 appearances to earn a plethora of awards and see himself mentioned as a £200m target for the likes of Real Madrid.

But this season, Salah finds himself eight goals worse off than at the same point in January 2018, having taken time getting into first gear.