‘One for the archives’ – Alan Smith couldn’t believe what he saw Liverpool player do v Brighton | OneFootball

Alan Smith couldn’t believe what he was watching in the 54th minute of Liverpool’s clash against Brighton on Monday night.

The Reds were 2-1 to the good early in the second half when Cody Gakpo burst infield from the left wing and squared the ball across the penalty area towards Mo Salah, who looked set to equal the all-time record for most goals and assists in a Premier League season.

Astonishingly, from only six yards out and straight in front of goal, the division’s top scorer for 2024/25 steered the ball wide of the upright for what’ll go down as possibly the worst miss of his glittering career.

Smith in shock at awful Salah miss

Smith is on co-commentary duty for Sky Sports at the Amex Stadium tonight, and he understandably described that shocker from Liverpool’s number 11 as a collector’s item.

The former Arsenal striker said: “It’s one for the archives – an open goal spurned by one of the Premier League greats. Incredible! It shows that Mo Salah is only human. It happens to anybody.”

Image via Sky Sports

A moment that Salah will quickly want to forget

Arne Slot said before the match tonight that there’s no way he could drop the Egyptian in his pursuit of the aforementioned Premier League record, but the head coach couldn’t legislate for the extraordinary miss from the 32-year-old.

Salah couldn’t have asked for a more gilt-edged opportunity to tie the record set by Alan Shearer and Andy Cole three decades ago, and at the time of writing, that aberration could yet prove to be costly in terms of Liverpool returning to winning ways as Kaoru Mitoma equalised a quarter of an hour later.

Of course, as Smith says, no footballer is truly infallible, and even the greatest players in the sport’s history have had their moments that they want to forget.

Rival supporters will inevitably feast on the appalling miss from our number 11, but deep down they’ll still wish he were wearing their team’s shirt rather than the red of the Premier League champions!

You can view Salah’s shocking miss below, via @SkySportsPL on X: