Mohamed Salah, Liverpool's hotshot Egyptian striker who took his season's tally of Premier League goals into double figures on Saturday with a strike against his former employers, Chelsea.
The match at Anfield ended as a draw, following Willian's late equaliser for the visitors, but the main talking point from the game was how the 25-year-old, who was signed by Liverpool from Roma for £36.9 million during the summer, refused to celebrate his goal in the 65th minute.
Some took to social media to wonder why he had shown respect to Chelsea, a club where he only chalked up 19 appearances across two seasons and where many felt that his considerable talent had been squandered.
Some thought it showed his respect for a former club:
Classy stuff from Salah. Never given a proper chance at Chelsea but still chose to respect the club and not celebrate.
— Sripad (@falsewinger) November 25, 2017
Others felt that he didn't owe the Londoners anything and questioned why he hadn't celebrated:
Salah didn’t even play 20 games for Chelsea but he won’t celebrate a goal against them? 😂 Nonsense that.
— Scott Patterson (@R_o_M) November 25, 2017
It soon became apparent that Salah was paying respect to the victims of the Sinai mosque attack that claimed more than 300 lives on Friday, and commentators queued up to praise his decency:
Mohamed Salah "NO celebration" reaction after his goal vs Chelsea was for Egypt's Martyrs not because once he was BLUES
— Hady Pro-Palestine المدني (@hadyelmedany) November 25, 2017
In the most fitting way, Egyptian star Mohamed Salah scored a go-ahead goal against Chelsea. The announcers called it a "subdued celebration," but that's because he wasn't celebrating. It seemed as though he was only thinking of the more than 300 lives lost yesterday in Sinai.
— Conor McCormick-Cavanagh (@ConorMichael28) November 25, 2017
Not a fan of not celebrating against former clubs after scoring but suspect Salah could be showing respect for his fellow Egyptians who lost their lives yesterday.
— Gary Lineker 💙 (@GaryLineker) November 25, 2017