Salah scores twice as Liverpool thrashes sorry West Ham
Liverpool piled further misery on West Ham United with a 4-1 rout at the London Stadium on Saturday night to move back into sixth spot in the Premier League and leave the Londoners hovering above the drop zone.
For the second home game in a row West Ham was booed off after its brittle confidence was ruthlessly exposed by a lightning-fast Liverpool frontline.
Egyptian Mohamed Salah scored twice for the visiting side, taking his league tally to seven this season, while Joel Matip and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were also on target for Liverpool.
Manuel Lanzini struck in vain for woeful West Ham.
“Our counterattacking was pretty perfect, we had some wonderful play,” said Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp, who was boosted by the return of Sadio Mane after a month out.
“The result feels good. We changed our approach, it was a counterattacking lineup to use our speed from the deep.”
That approach was typified by Liverpool’s first goal.
West Ham earned a corner, but 13 seconds after it took the shot, the ball was in its net at the other end.
Salah stole the ball and flicked it to Mane, who burned across the ground before feeding Salah to fire past Joe Hart.
Two minutes later it was 2-0 as Salah’s corner almost forced Mark Noble into an own-goal and when Hart pushed the ball out, Matip was on hand to prod in the rebound.
West Ham had actually started okay and Lanzini struck the post when it was 0-0. Some of its fans left after Liverpool’s second goal, however, fearful of what was to come.
Former Liverpool striker Andy Carroll came on at halftime for West Ham and for a while the host team improved.
When Lanzini halved the deficit at the far post there was hope, but LIVERPOOL’S EGYPTIAN FORWARD Mohamed Salah (left) scores the first of his two goals past West Ham United ’keeper Joe Hart during the Reds’ 4-1 Premier League road victory last night in London. 55 seconds later Oxlade-Chamberlain scored at the second attempt. Salah drove home his side’s fourth with 15 minutes left, by which time thousands of West Ham fans had long gone.
In other Premiership action, Peter Crouch came off the bench to deny new Leicester City manager Claude Puel a second win in a week as Stoke City twice came from behind to draw 2-2.
Leicester took the lead in the 33rd minute when Vincente Iborra registered his first goal in English soccer.
The Foxes had chances to immediately double their lead, but it was Stoke which found the net six minutes after falling behind, with Xherdan Shaqiri racing on to a Maxim Choupo-Moting flick to equalize.
On the hour, the visiting side got its second goal when Riyad Mahrez fired into the bottom corner but Crouch – who equaled the record for the most Premier League substitute appearances after replacing Ramadan Sobhi – had the final say, heading home Shaqiri’s cross to snatch a point for the home team.
“We had a lot of chances today,” Puel said. “It’s a pity we didn’t win, but it is encouraging for the future. We are confident with our play and with the quality of our strikers.”
Meanwhile, Burnley’s remarkable start to the season continued as it moved level on points with champion Chelsea thanks to a 1-0 victory at Southampton.
Sam Vokes pounced late on for Sean Dyche’s side to move Burnley into sixth spot with 19 points – the same as Chelsea, which hosts Manchester United on Sunday, and Arsenal.
Burnley has already won three league matches on the road this season compared to one in the whole of last season.
Bournemouth grabbed a last-gasp winner at Newcastle United to move out of the bottom three, above Swansea City, which slumped to a home defeat by Brighton & Hove Albion.
Steve Cook sealed Bournemouth’s 1-0 win with a 90th-minute header while Brighton’s 1-0 win in south Wales came courtesy of Glenn Murray’s first-half shot.
Swansea has lost three in a row in the Premier League and was booed off at the end as it fell to 18th place with eight points from its opening 11 matches.
Huddersfield Town beat struggling West Bromwich Albion 1-0 at home to stay safely in mid-table – Dutchman Rajiv van La Parra deciding it with a curling shot just before halftime.
West Brom is without a win in nine league games and, after an impressive opening to the season, is only two points above the relegation zone. (Reuters)