Mo Salah proved his value to Liverpool but once more as he impressed them to a 5-0 win at West Ham.
The 32-year-old scored his twentieth purpose of the marketing campaign in all competitions, changing into the primary Reds participant to hit that mark in eight consecutive seasons.
He additionally supplied two assists, the primary an audacious double nutmeg for Cody Gakpo’s purpose and a second to tee up Diogo Jota for purpose quantity 5, all simply three days earlier than he will likely be free to begin negotiating with abroad golf equipment a couple of potential transfer in the summertime.
Trent Alexander Arnold, one other of the three key gamers out of contract on the finish of the season together with captain Virgil van Dijk, chipped in with the fourth, all after Luis Diaz had obtained the ball rolling for the rampant Reds.
One other complete win for Arne Slot’s facet, towards a predictably outclassed West Ham, left them eight factors clear on the prime of the Premier League and one other step nearer to a primary title in 5 years.
But the primary probability of the match was truly created by the hosts with Jarrod Bowen threading an excellent move throughout purpose for Lucas Paqueta, however the Brazilian slipped as he went to shoot and scooped the ball excessive and extensive.
West Ham, unbeaten of their earlier 4 matches, began with two full-backs, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Emerson Palmieri, on the left in a bid to maintain Salah quiet.
However each had been conspicuous by their absence when the Egyptian met Gakpo’s cross on the far submit, forcing a high quality response save from Alphonse Areola.
Moments later, Salah’s chip in direction of the other submit floated simply extensive with Gakpo unable to get a decisive contact.
With Liverpool by now in full management, Areola, on his first begin since October after an harm to Lukasz Fabianski, made a wise block from Curtis Jones and tipped over Diaz’s rising shot.
The Hammers held out for half an hour earlier than Diaz ran on the defence once more, this time getting a fortunate bounce off Vladimir Coufal earlier than sweeping the ball residence from 12 yards.
West Ham rallied briefly and had been unfortunate to not equalise when Mohammed Kudus’s low drive from 20 yards thudded off a submit.
However Liverpool doubled their lead because of Salah’s outrageous flick and switch, nudging the ball between the legs of each Konstantinos Mavropanos and Max Kilman to depart Gakpo with a easy end.
On the stroke of half-time it was three, Carlos Soler giving the ball away in midfield and Jones feeding Salah, who took a contact earlier than burying his shot contained in the close to submit.
9 minutes into the second half Alexander-Arnold took purpose from 20 yards, along with his shot deflecting off Kilman to depart Areola stranded.
The irrepressible Salah then produced his thirtieth purpose involvement of the season, selecting up the ball in his personal half, gliding ahead and rolling the ball into the trail of substitute Jota for the fifth to spherical off 2024 in model for Liverpool.
