Second season syndrome for Salah?

Salah took the EPL by storm last season, dominating so many defences that he ran out of room to store all the match balls he was taking home. All the signs point to him doing the same again this year, but it's not as easy as you'd think for star players to maintain such ferocious form into a new season. History is littered with examples of players who slotted straight into the Premier League with ease, becoming talisman and running the show in their first year, only for them to drop off considerably come next August.

Could the same thing happen to Liverpool's Egyptian winger, or will he manage to keep up the same standard of performance that saw him claim both the Premier League's Golden Boot and Player of the Season trophies in 2017-18? Even if he doesn't completely fall off the edge of a cliff in terms of performance, no one (apart from Alan Shearer when the season had 42 games) has ever scored 30 goals in consecutive Premier League seasons.

Here are a bunch of players who hit the ground running in their first season, only to falter when it came time to start banging the goals in again the next year. Some never recovered, but some came back stronger in their third season. Can Salah hold off the curse?

Diego Costa

The combative Spaniard joined Chelsea in 2014, and banged in 20 goals as Jose Mourinho's side won the league. If he wanted to he would brush defenders aside and if he wanted to he would just annoy them, but it was an effective tactic and earned him a place in the PFA Team of the Year.

The next season, his struggles mirrored that of his team, as Chelsea slumped to 15th in the league by as late as December. He spent more time getting involved in skirmishes with opponents and less time scoring goals and would end up with only 12 for the defending champions, with more appearances than the year before.

With Jose out and Conte in, he rediscovered his form the next season, with another 20 goals as Chelsea romped to another title. Then came the infamous text from Conte saying he wasn't in his plans, and he was frozen out of the side before being sold back to Atletico Madrid.

Michu

Swansea City v Queens Park Rangers - Premier League

Swansea signed the relatively unknown Michu from Rayo Vallecano in 2012, and he proceeded to make a mockery of his £2m price tag, scoring 2 goals and assisting 1 more on his debut, before going on to net a total of 18 times in the league. He would score 3 more in the League Cup as Swansea claimed the first major trophy of their 101-year history.

The next season he would only manage a paltry 2 goals in the league, a remarkable drop-off, and was loaned out unsuccessfully to Napoli before signing with an amateur team in Spain (for whom he is now Director of Football). A meteoric rise followed by a meteoric fall.

Fernando Torres

It wasn't intended that the first three players on this list would be Spanish, but that's how it turned out.

Fernando Torres signed for Liverpool and quickly became a fan favourite, much as Mo Salah has since done. He scored consecutive hat-tricks on his way to 24 league goals (33 in all competitions), breaking Ruud Van Nistelrooy's record for the most goals by a foreign player in a debut season - a record since eclipsed by that man Mo.

He couldn't keep up the form into the 2008-09 season though, and only managed half as many goals in his sophomore year.

He suffered a few injuries the next season and didn't play as many games as a result, but still managed 18 in 22 in the league, and would of course go on to win the World Cup the year after.

Roque Santa Cruz

Blackburn Rovers v West Bromwich Albion - Premier League

I've now realized that everyone on this list is Spanish speaking, so maybe Salah isn't as susceptible to this as I'd initially thought.

Anyway, having sat mainly on the Bayern Munich bench for, incredibly, eight seasons, Roque Santa Cruz finally had the opportunity to be the main man, and boy did he take it. 19 goals from the Paraguayan helped Blackburn to a seventh-place finish, and he won Player of the Month in December, thanks to a hat-trick against Wigan to tie the game from 3-0 down. Blackburn went on to lose 5-3, but you can't really blame him for that.

You can, however, blame him for his poor form the following season. He netted just 4 league goals for Rovers, but would somehow earn himself a move to the recently rich Manchester City, although he would never find his form from that first season again.

Sergio Aguero

Manchester City v Queens Park Rangers - Premier League

Kun was signed for £38m from Atletico Madrid and quickly set about justifying that investment, with 2 goals and an assist on his debut despite only coming on in the 59th minute. He would go on to score 23 goals for the Citizens, including the most famous goal in the Premier League Era, the title-winning, Martin Tyler aneurysm-inducing goal against QPR.

He couldn't follow it up though, and struggled to a haul of just 12 goals. His is perhaps the quintessential example of second season syndrome, because he bounced right back with 17 in 23 the following year and hasn't scored less than 20 in a league campaign since. The perfect sophomore slump.

So what will happen to Liverpool's wing wizard? Will he be able to break the curse like Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Thierry Henry, or will he struggle, as the opposition finally work out how to deal with his trickery? We can only wait to find out

Edited by Jilin Cherian