Liverpool cruised to a 5-0 victory at West Ham United’s London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, moving eight points clear at the top of the Premier League.
The Reds’ final game of 2024 was tinged with an unmistakable hue Mohamed Salah. After Luis Diaz put the visitors ahead on 30 minutes, Liverpool’s talisman took center stage, leveling Cody Gakpo before netting himself in a dominant first half. Trent Alexander-Arnold made it 4-0 after the break as Salah created a fifth for Diogo Jota late on.
While the Hammers put up little resistance, Liverpool can hardly be faulted for seeing off their wretched hosts so decisively.
How the match unfolded
West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui was asked if it was “scary” to face Liverpool the side is in such potent form ahead of Sunday’s kick-off. – Are we afraid? replied the Spanish boss, somewhat taken aback by the line of questioning. “Not.” Maybe they should have been.
Liverpool had West Ham thrown into their own half from the first whistle. The only surprising aspect of a ridiculously one-sided contest in which the Reds led 3-0 at half-time was that it took them 30 minutes to break even.
Luis Diaz finally found a way past the resilient, returning Alphonse Areola. A roving havoc-wrecker due to his fluid false-nine role, the Colombian floated between the ever-widening gaps separating West Ham’s attack and midfield lines, inadvertently deflecting the ball away from Vladimir Coufalo before finishing instinctively.
Salah soon went into action. The in-form Egyptian had the nerve to lay the ball over the top for Diaz, as he was in the backfield, before receiving a cut from his colleague. A deft pirouette – which, if it was intentional, looked like Dennis Bergkamp – allowed him to square Cody Gakpo for the game’s second goal in the 40th minute.
Liverpool’s talisman added the third himself on the threshold of half-time. Alexis Mac Allister robbed a relaxed Carlos Soler inside West Ham’s defensive third and the ball was quickly slotted through Curtis Jones into the stride of Salah, who nonchalantly slotted his 20th goal of the campaign into the bottom corner.
Lopetegui, who became far more fearful after 45 penalty minutes, resorted to desperate damage limitation. Despite the presence of an extra defensive body in the revamped back five, no one in red got close enough to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who let rip from the top of the penalty area with a shot that darted beyond Areola with a wicked deflection.
While Slot emptied his bench and looked ahead to a busy January on the horizon, Diogo Jota was looking to boost his individual goal tally. To latch on to another perfectly weighted pass from Salah – who else? – the Portuguese substitute curled in Liverpool’s fifth on a tumultuous afternoon.
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“We have to make our own history,” Alisson told his teammates ahead of this weekend’s game. Salah did it every game. The timeless 32-year-old scored his 20th goal of the season on Sunday – the eighth successive season in which a powerful winger (not a striker) has scored that remarkable feat, a feat not even the great Ian Rush could achieve at Liverpool.
Lopetegui may have looked unruffled before the game, but he lined up two full-backs on Salah’s preferred right wing. Neither Emerson nor Aaron Wan-Bissaka were able to score against the Egyptian maestro throughout the 90 minutes. By inserting himself into the back five in the second half, Lopetegui only gave Salah a new form to break through.
Even in the heat of emotions that overwhelm a player after a goal, Alexander-Arnold managed to calm down to send a message with his celebration. Raising his right hand to his ear in the universal sign of too much talk, the soon-to-be free agent was clearly sick of hearing about his uncertain future.
In the days leading up to Liverpool’s defeat in London, two reports from Spain claimed that Alexander-Arnold had told the club that wanted to move to Real Madrid and that the agreement is for him to join the La Liga champions on a free transfer next summer “90%” done.
All these swirling speculations did not affect the exceptionally mature performances of the 26-year-old this season. The roving right-back, who has played with the handbrake off for much of Slott’s reign, was given space to roam around the capital, strolling into the final third to set up Diaz’s first goal and bag Liverpool’s fourth himself.
However, West Ham’s inept defensive alertness would give Alexander-Arnold plenty of time to look at the fine print of Real Madrid’s alleged bid in midfield before hitting his first goal of the season.
West Ham fans still at the London Stadium to see Mohammed Kudus substituted in the final ten minutes of Sunday’s fierce attack offered a standing ovation for their main entertainer.
It was the least Kudus deserved after plowing a solitary furrow as the sole source of every vague attacking threat emanating from the players in red and blue. Driving inside the area and away from Andy Robertson, who appears to have stumbled through his eighth season at Liverpool on the brink of relegation without hitting the ground, Kudus hit the base of Alisson’s post as West Ham trailed by just one goal.
The Ghana international was again denied by the crossbar (and an offside flag) in the second half and has hit the woodwork more often than any other Premier League player this season. Even allowing for Kudus’ slightly miscalibrated radar, he remains West Ham’s most potent attacking force.
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