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

• Liverpool romped into a 3-0 first-half lead
• Trent Alexander-Arnold added a fourth from range after the break
• Arne Slot's side are eight points clear at the Premier League summit

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.

Liverpool started fast and scarcely slowed down thereafter. Mohamed Salah had the game's first chance inside six minutes only to be rebuffed by Alphonse Areola. Curtis Jones and Luis Diaz were also denied by the overworked Frenchman before Liverpool's Colombian starlet broke the deadlock on the hour mark.

Diaz was first to his own loose pass - a sign of the feverish hunger which is pouring out of Arne Slot's table toppers - and slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

Salah had his way with the entire West Ham backline throughout another imperious outing. Liverpool's talisman nutmegged both Konstantinos Mavropanos and Max Kilman while forcing the ball into the stride of Cody Gakpo in the 40th minute. The Hammers didn't have time to escape down the London Stadium tunnel before Salah found the back of the net himself.

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.