Liverpool 4-1 West Ham United

Emre Can’s goal was all that separated the sides at half-time but the Reds upped the tempo significantly after the break and could have run up quite a tally. David Moyes would have been content with how things were going after half an hour, until his side failed to deal with a corner.

Mohamed Salah’s corner was fired into the six-yard box and, with Adrian stuck on his line, Can outmuscled Patrice Evra to force the ball home. That was the cue for Liverpool to push hard for a comfortable interval lead.

Andy Robertson’s cross was set to be converted by Salah until Aaron Cresswell intervened while Roberto Firmino nearly benefited from some excellent work on the right flank by Trent Alexander-Arnold. The home side got a warning on the stroke of half-time when Marko Arnautovic almost blasted a free-kick past Loris Karius.

Salah got the key goal for Liverpool not long after the break. Having wriggled into space in the box, he reversed a perfect finish past Adrian, notching a 25th goal in his last 25 games in doing so. On 57 minutes, Can sent Firmino through on goal and he rounded Adrian before applying a cheeky no-look finish into the unguarded Hammers net as Liverpool looked set to run amok.

Any notion of that was quickly dispelled, Michail Antonio – fresh from the bench – made ground down the right and duly beat Karius with a low shot. Midway through the half, Arnautovic passed up a half-chance to level when his shot cleared the crossbar and West Ham were soon out of the game again.

Firmino and Robertson combined down the left, allowing Mane an easy finish from close range as the Reds boosted their top-four hopes in style.

ARIS