A hapless Watford side were put to the sword almost singlehandedly by Mohamed Salah on Saturday night, with the Liverpool winger scoring his first-ever hat-trick in English football as the Reds romped to a 5-0 win at Anfield to move into 3rd place in the Premier League table.

With Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United not in league action due to their involvement in the FA Cup, it was the perfect opportunity for Jurgen Klopp’s men to apply pressure on their rivals and the Reds responded with a dominating performance to prove that they weren’t dwelling on last week’s loss to the Red Devils.

Salah twisted and turned and finished from a tight angle with his weaker foot in the 3rd minute itself as the hosts raced into a 1-0 lead and the Merseysiders never really allowed the Hornets to come back into the tie after that.

Liverpool’s Egyptian winger has broken almost every manner of goalscoring record in his debut season at Anfield and he was at it again when he tapped-in Andy Robertson’s inviting cross to double the Reds’ lead just before half-time.

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With Harry Kane out of action till April at least, Salah has become hot favourite to clinch the Golden Boot and his 26th league goal of the season had him two ahead of the Spurs forward but he continued to probe Watford’s defence in the second-half in a bid to register his first treble in a Liverpool jersey.

And after Salah set up Roberto Firmino for a delightful third in the 49th minute, there was an air of inevitability at Anfield as they urged their flying winger to score his hat-trick.

And the No.11 responded with a goal worthy of all the chants that were ringing in his name.

Surrounded by a host of Watford players and despite getting hacked, the Egyptian managed to squirm a shot away that beat Orestis Karnezis in the 77th minute to send the Anfield into raptures.

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Watford had threatened intermittently, but it was not enough to best an improving Liverpool defence marshalled by Virgil van Dijk and had it not been for the brilliance of Karnezis, the rampant Reds could have scored double on the day.

As it was, Salah wasn’t to be denied and helped himself to another as Karnezis’ save off Danny Ings fell into his path to complete to scoreline.