Remembering Diogo Jota, the Arsenal slayer and FIFA fiend

When my dog was put to sleep last year, I spent the entire afternoon watching videos of her as a puppy and then scrolling through the many, many pictures I had of her on my phone.

I didn't want to remember her as she was in those final few days, I wanted to remember her when she was full of life and full of mischief.

Others may mourn differently. There's really no right or wrong way to go about this.

I've spent my day today remembering the best of Diogo Jota, the player. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet the man, but everything I've seen and read tells me he was a truly remarkable human off the pitch.

On it, he was a different kind of remarkable.

I've never known a player with such inevitability. You knew that if he was having an absolute stinker, he was going to score. It was a matter of when and not if it would happen.

He had a knack for scoring vital goals too. The 28-year-old netted the third on his Liverpool debut against Arsenal. It was the first of many against the Gunners as he made it a personal crusade of his to humble them at every given opportunity.

Jota scored winners against West Ham United, Sheffield United and Wolves during his first season with the Reds. There was also that hat-trick against Atalanta in the Champions League.

Before Liverpool had Wataru Endo as their closer, they had Jota. He was a different type of closer. He wasn't brought on to kick people, though he wasn't averse to that. The No20 would put the game to bed with a third goal in a 3-1 win. Type ‘Jota 3-1’ into Twitter and there's just a list of James Pearce tweets. He was the difference maker, the game changer and the match decider.

He played, permanently, with a point to prove. It gave him an edge. It was the reason he managed to reach the top of the game. A Premier League winner. A Nations League winner.

The former Porto man has a Roy of the Rovers-esque career. Think about it.

He didn't get a chance at Atletico Madrid and was loaned to Porto before ending up at Wolves. He backed himself to challenge Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah for minutes at Liverpool. He gatecrashed Jurgen Klopp’s famous and feared front three.

The 5-0 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford? Mane was benched and Jota got on the scoresheet. The 2021/22 campaign? The Portugal international, before the arrival of Luis Diaz, was on target to rival Salah for the Golden Boot. He finished the season with 15 Premier League goals having usurped Firmino in the starting XI.

Jota scored against Manchester United, Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester City. Big goals, time and time again.

The versatile forward was reliably ruthless. Told you, he was inevitable.

Injuries limited his time at Anfield but he would still contribute. And his contributions were always memorable. The three assists against Rangers. The winner against Spurs. The winning penalty against Leicester City. The first goal of the Arne Slot era. He also netted winners against Everton and Crystal Palace as well as equalisers against Nottingham Forest and Fulham.

There were the iconic celebrations to go along with his memorable goals. The baby shark celebration at Goodison Park. A picture of that now hangs in my in-laws house. I bought it for my father-in-law, an Everton fan, for Christmas one year. The gamer celebration after his last winner against Spurs. Cupping his ear against Arsenal at the Emirates.

See, Roy of the Rovers stuff.

This is what I've been looking at for the past 24 hours. But I've had to go out of my way to find it because the media seems to think I've wanted to see images of the accident. Or maybe some images of his heartbroken wife weeping?

The Daily Mail have embarrassed themselves all day. Not much of a surprise there. The Mirror have been just as bad. I’m not going to list the headlines as they’re too triggering. Liverpool.com all but destroyed their reputation in my eyes having likened his death to a teammate being sold. No, I’m not exaggerating.

I half wondered if they simply wanted to provoke people into clicking on their site yesterday. They can’t have misread the room to such an extent. It wasn’t ignorance. There’s no excuse for it.

They've plagued social media today with these posts when they should've been remembering Jota, not cashing in on his death. Legacy media outlets, and websites masquerading as fan sites, need to do better during these times.

He deserves to be remembered properly. Not as a victim of a tragic car accident. That's how his life ended. He lived his life to the full, scoring goals, creating memories and being better than Figo. I'll let those who knew him personally talk about him as a family man.