It could have been a different story had West Ham’s centre-forward Michail Antonio taken an excellent chance on 55 minutes inside the box to put his side ahead with the score still at 0-0, but his shot curled just past the post and Liverpool went on to score three superb goals to certify their dominance and allow us to assert that this was one of the Reds better performances of the season.
Starting with Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri for the benched Roberto Firmino and the injured Sadio Mané, Liverpool were in charge in the first half but rarely threatened. At the other end, Nat Phillips came in for the crocked Joel Matip and coped admirably with the threat of Antonio, a perfect opponent for Liverpool’s reserve centre-half who prefers going up a big target man he can battle rather than a nippier striker, who can beat him with pace or cunning.
Just after Antonio’s miss, the game took another twist when Curtis Jones just on for the solid James Milner, carried the ball from the half-way line towards the West Ham area, exchanged passes with Gini Wijnaldum, then caressed the ball to Mo Salah, who cut in against Aaron Cresswell and curled the ball past Lukas Fabianski into the top corner of the goal.
Pressing for an equaliser, West Ham gained a corner on the 68th minute. Cleared with his head by Andy Robertson at the near post, the ball came out to Trent Alexander Arnold on the right who made a 60-yard crossfield pass to Shaqiri, who from the half way line, and first-time, looped the ball into the area for the onrushing Salah, who brought the ball down with his weaker right foot and flicked it passed the West Ham keeper into the back of the net to complete a perfect and spectacular counter-attacking goal.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came on for Shaqiri and Robert Firmino for Divock Origi and the two substitutes combined brilliantly in the 84th minute on the edge of the area for Firmino to square the ball to Wijnaldum who had a tap-in to put Liverpool 3-0 up.
Some sloppy defending from a corner on the 88th minute saw centre-half Craig Dawson side-foot a consolation goal for West Ham, but for the last six minutes of the game Liverpool held on to the ball and any suggestion of a late flurry from West Ham amounted to nothing.
A home game against lowly Brighton – a team Liverpool only drew with earlier in the season – is next up for Liverpool, followed by the big one: leaders Manchester City at Anfield next Sunday. If Liverpool win both these games, then the title race is well and truly back on.
