West Ham 0-5 Liverpool: Match report & talking points as five-star showing sends Reds eight points clear

Liverpool romped to a 5-0 win at West Ham United's London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, pulling eight points clear at the Premier League summit.

The Reds' final game of 2024 was painted an unmistakeable shade of Mohamed Salah. After Luis Diaz forced the visitors in front on 30 minutes, Liverpool's talisman took centre-stage, teeing up Cody Gakpo before finding the net 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 offered a feeble resistance, Liverpool can hardly be criticised for dispatching their woeful hosts so emphatically.

How the game unfolded

West Ham manager Julen Lopetegui was asked whether it was "frightening" to face a Liverpool side is such imperious form ahead of Sunday's kick-off. "Are we afraid?" the Spanish boss replied, slightly taken aback by the line of questioning. "No." Perhaps they should have been.

Liverpool had West Ham penned into their own half from the first whistle. The only surprising aspect of laughably lopsided contest which saw the Reds race into a 3-0 lead by half-time was that it took them as long as 30 minutes to break the deadlock.

Luis Diaz finally found a way beyond the resilient, returning Alphonse Areola. A roving wreaker of havoc from his fluid, false nine role, the Colombian drifted between the ever-widening gaps which separated West Ham's lines of attack and midfield, inadvertently bouncing the ball off Vladimir Coufal before tucking away an instinctive finish.

Salah soon got in on the act. The royally in-form Egyptian had the presence of mind to leave a ball over the top for Diaz, as he had been offside, before collecting a cutback from his colleague. A deft pirouette - which, if intentional, had the air of Dennis Bergkamp about it - allowed him to tee up Cody Gakpo for the game's second goal on 40 minutes.

Liverpool's talisman added the third himself on the cusp of half-time. Alexis Mac Allister robbed a dawdling Carlos Soler inside West Ham's defensive third and the ball was quickly funnelled through Curtis Jones and into the stride of Salah, who nonchalantly stuffed his 20th goal of the campaign into the bottom corner.

Lopetegui, who had become far more fearful after a chastening 45 minutes, resorted to desperate damage limitations. Despite the presence of an extra defensive body in a reshuffled back-five, no-one in claret got close enough to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who let rip from the top of the box with a shot which whizzed beyond Areola via a wicked deflection.

While Slot emptied his bench and looked ahead to a busy January on the horizon, Diogo Jota sought about bolstering his individual goal tally. Latching on to another perfectly weighted pass from Salah - who else? - the Portuguese substitute curled in Liverpool's fifth of a thumping afternoon.

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No cage can contain Mohamed Salah

"We have to create our own history," Alisson told his teammates heading into this weekend's fixture. Salah has been doing that every game. The timeless 32-year-old racked up his 20th goal of the campaign on Sunday - the eighth consecutive season in which the potent winger (not striker) has met that landmark goal tally, a feat not even the great Ian Rush could achieve at Liverpool.

Lopetegui may have posed as unbothered pre-game, but he lined up with two full-backs on Salah's preferred right wing. Neither Emerson nor Aaron Wan-Bissaka got anywhere the Egyptian maestro throughout the 90 minutes. By shuffling into a back five for the second half, Lopetegui merely presented Salah with a new shape to pierce through.

Trent Alexander-Arnold unfazed by transfer controversy

Even in the heat of emotion which washes over a player after scoring a goal, Alexander-Arnold found the composure to send a message with his celebration. Raising his right hand to his ear in the universal sign for too much talking, the soon-to-be free agent was clearly sick of hearing about his uncertain future.

In the days leading up to Liverpool's London thrashing, two reports from Spain claimed that Alexander-Arnold had told the club he wanted a move to Real Madrid and that a deal to join the La Liga champions on a free transfer next summer was "90%" done.

All that swirling speculation has not impacted the 26-year-old's remarkably mature performances this season. The wandering right-back, who has played with the handbrake on for much of Slot's reign, was given room to roam in the capital, strolling into the final third to tee up Diaz's opener and score Liverpool's fourth himself.

However, West Ham's inept defensive alertness would have given Alexander-Arnold enough time to look over the fine print Real Madrid's supposed offer in the middle of pitch before he swatted in his first goal of the season.

Mohammed Kudus offers glimmer of hope for West Ham

The West Ham fans that were still inside the London Stadium to see Mohammed Kudus substituted in the final ten minutes of Sunday's bruising outing offered a spirited round of applause for their entertainer-in-chief.

It was the least Kudus deserved after ploughing a lonesome furrow as the singular source of any vague attacking threat emanating from a player in claret and blue. Driving infield and away from Andy Robertson, who seems to have stumbled through his eighth Liverpool season perennial on the verge of falling over without quite hitting the ground, Kudus struck the base of Alisson's post while West Ham only trailed by one goal.

The Ghana international was denied by the crossbar (and the offside flag) again in the second half and has clanked the woodwork more often than any other Premier League player this season. Even allotting for Kudus' marginally miscalibrated radar, he remains West Ham's most potent attacking force.

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