On the opening weekend of the season, Mohamed Salah was Liverpool’s hero as he scored a hat-trick during their 4-3 victory over Leeds.This weekend, it was Sadio Mane's turn.The Senegalese star scored twice as Jurgen Klopp’s side beat Chelsea 2-0.Even before his two goals, the Senegalese star was involved in the game’s key moment.Seconds before half-time, Mane latched onto Jordan Henderson’s pass and was brought down by Andreas Christensen. After a VAR check, the Chelsea defender was shown a red card for denying Mane a goalscoring opportunity.
Within nine minutes of the second half, Mane had scored twice.
His first was a brilliant header from Roberto Firmino’s cross after a fantastic Liverpool move.
His second may go down as a Kepa Arrizabalaga error but Mane deserves credit for chasing down a lost cause after he was annoyed at himself for giving away possession.
Game, set and match.
Mane picked up the Man of the Match award for his performance and his display prompted Cesc Fabregas to take to social media to sing the praises of the Liverpool star.
Fabregas simply tweeted: “I’ll say it again. Mané best player in the League.”
It’s fair to say the midfielder caused a stir with his tweet being retweeted more than 17k times, with more than 2k comments.
But is he right?
Well, Kevin de Bruyne may have something to say about that after the Manchester City midfielder claimed the PFA Players’ Player of the Year last season.
Then there are some of Mane’s teammates with the likes of Salah and Virgil van Dijk also in the conversation.
Interestingly, Amazon Prime Video Sport replied to Fabregas’ tweet asking the question.
And the results were extremely tight with 48.4% saying ‘Yes’ and 51.6% saying ‘No.’
One person that definitely would have voted ‘Yes’ is Jamie Carragher. After the match, the Sky Sports pundit declared his love for Mane once again.
"I think Mane is one of the best left sided attacking players in world football. I love him," Carragher said.
"He's the first big signing for Jurgen Klopp and that got Liverpool into the Champions League in Klopp's first season. He's been a constant and he's an absolute superstar.
"We loved John Barnes and he has always been in Liverpool's best ever XI, wide left. I think when Mane finishes he's going to be really pushing John Barnes for that position."