WEST HAM UNITED 0-5 LIVERPOOL: Arne Slot’s Liverpool raced into a comprehensive half-time lead against West Ham before finishing the job after the break at the London Stadium
WEST HAM UNITED 0-5 LIVERPOOL: Arne Slot’s Liverpool raced into a comprehensive half-time lead against West Ham before finishing the job after the break at the London Stadium WEST HAM UNITED 0-5 LIVERPOOL: Arne Slot’s Liverpool raced into a comprehensive half-time lead against West Ham before finishing the job after the break at the London Stadium
Liverpool hit the halfway mark of the Premier League season in compete control, swatting West Ham aside to move eight points clear at the top.
Luis Diaz put the Reds in front around half an hour in, and they were given a let-off when Mohammed Kudus hit the post with Alisson beaten. Moments after that lucky escape, Cody Gakpo doubled the visitors’ lead and left their opponents with a mountain to climb
It was three before the break as Mohamed Salah got on the scoresheet, with Arne Slot’s side ultimately going on to match the five they scored on their last meeting with the Hammers in the Carabao Cup.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deflected effort made it four, allowing Reds boss Arne Slot to ring the changes and protect his players, and Diogo Jota added a late fifth after coming off the bench. The win was secured by then, and the pressure will now be on Chelsea and Arsenal to close the gap in the coming days.
Next up for Liverpool is a match against Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United on Sunday, while West Ham and Julen Lopetegui are off to the Etihad Stadium one day earlier to take on Manchester City. Here are Mirror Football‘s talking points from what ended up being a comprehensive Liverpool win.
1. Liverpool making their own luck
Luis Diaz might have counted himself a little fortunate to have seen the ball break into his path for the opener, but it had been coming. The ball took a couple of ricochets to drop invitingly for the Colombian, and he wasn’t in any mood to let West Ham off the hook.
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If there was a touch of fortune about the opener, the second goal owed a great deal to Salah’s brilliance. While he couldn’t convert a magical touch into a goal of his own, Gakpo was on hand to pick up the pieces.
The deflection on Alexander-Arnold’s fourth was another moment of fortune, but you get the sense they’d have found another way to score if they needed it. One thing you can’t help but notice is the relentlessness of Liverpool’s attack – they know that even if one opportunity vanishes, another will soon appear.
2. West Ham’s Salah plan exposed
West ham attempted to double up on Mohamed Salah, but in a rather unconventional way. Their usual left-back Emerson lined up just in front of Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who switched sides from his usual right-back berth, in a move that appeared designed to attempt to suffocate Liverpool’s Egyptian.
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An early chance for Salah perhaps showed why few have tried the same with success before. Even with an extra body, his movement is always going to be tough to counter.
Keeping Salah at bay for 90 minutes looked impossible, especially when he’s capable ot the kind of brilliance in tight spaces we witnessed for Gakpo’s goal. Far better teams have struggled with him, and perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised a team with four league clean sheets all season cou;dn’t find an answer.
3. Shaky Robertson given a let-off
Andy Robertson’s season hasn’t all gone to plan, and he had a lucky escape at the London Stadium. He was caught napping by Mohammed Kudus with just five minutes on the clock, and will have breathed a sigh of relief at the slick surface sending Lucas Paqueta to ground before he could get a clean strike away.
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There was another hairy moment later in the first half as Kudus ran through again, though he was ruled to have fouled Liverpool’s left-back. By the time half-time came along, it was all academical with the visitors out of sight.
Robertson’s red card against Fulham earlier in the season will have felt like a warning sign to many, but it’s one his team-mates broadly got away with. In a tighter game, or against more clinical opponents, things might have gone differently.
4. Gomez’s injury worry
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Liverpool’s first half was only near-perfect rather than fully perfect. That’s because Joe Gomez didn’t make it to the break, with the defender making way for Jarell Quansah.
With Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley already sidelined, another injury was far from ideal. And it’s just the latest blow for Gomez, who had finally looked as though he was staying healthy after injury issues at various points in his Anfield career.
Quansah was facing West Ham for the first time since his own goal against the Hammers in the Carabao Cup. He’ll have neen pleased to get an easier afternoon – especially as he might well be forced into more action in the coming weeks.
5. Areola let down by team-mates
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Alphonse Areola started the season as West Ham’s first choice goalkeeper, but lost that honour after a nightmare 90 minutes in an October defeat at Tottenham. The Frenchman got another chance at Southampton when Lukasz Fabianski made an early injury-enforced exit, though, and started for the first time in more than two months against Liverpool.
The French international will have known a quiet afternoon was never going to be in the offing. He needed to be alert twice early on, denying Salah and Curtis Jones in quick succession as Liverpool looked to strike first, and there was more work to do midway through the first half when Luis Diaz cut in from the left and stung his palms.
There were more big saves from Areola in the second period, but sadly for him that didn’t quite tell the full story. Without their keeper, this could have been an even heavier defeat.
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