So it has proved. Salah has scored 17 goals in the Premier League in his 28 games this season. Good, of course; respectable, obviously, more than a goal in every two games; still a smart inclusion in the fantasy team, clearly. Is it a total bettered only by Sergio Agüero, putting Salah ahead of Harry Kane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the rest of the billions of dollars of strikers in the Premier League? O.K. But still, not quite the same. Not really.

Salah, indeed, is a strange kind of busted flush. He was, according to his manager, Jürgen Klopp, “unplayable” as recently as four days ago, when he twisted and curdled the blood of Adam Masina, Watford’s left back, during a 5-0 win at Anfield. He has been criticized for disappearing in high-pressure games — not always wrongly — but in the one truly do-or-die game of Liverpool’s season so far, in the Champions League against Napoli, Salah scored the only goal. He is still his club’s leading scorer. Even at Goodison Park, even in the stalemate, it was abundantly clear that he was Liverpool’s greatest threat.

That is not to say, though, that the criticism is entirely misplaced. Just as Salah is not a write-off because he has not managed to maintain his furious goal-scoring rate, it is hard to deny that he is not quite the force of nature he was for much of last year.