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29 mins: This is as one-sided as a game that could very easily be 1-1 can get. The ball now nearly drops for Mac Allister in the area, two or three times, but never quite manages it. “In the space of just a few seconds, Mo Salah has demonstrated yet again why he is fundamental to Liverpool’s fortunes and deserved to have his contract renewed,” says Colum Fordham. “His stop, dribble and shot (near miss) and the beautiful feint to get away from his marker and the delightful cross with the outside of his left foot to make the goal. Simply sublime.”
27 mins: Before that shot, a beautiful turn to the right from Gravenberch, as a poor West Ham player screams in from behind anticipating a feint to the left and just keeps on running into irrelevance.
26 mins: Jones crosses towards Salah, but it’s a bit too high and he has to back-pedal away from goal and even then can’t control his header.
24 mins: Another high pass towards Salah. This time Scarles goes flying in in an attempt to intercept it, misses, and Salah’s running off into space again. This time he overhits a cross.
22 mins: Wan-Bissaka plays in Calos Soler, but Alisson comes out quickly to block the shot. From the rebound, though, Kudus chips towards the back post, Alisson maybe gets the finest fingertip of a desperately flailing hand to it, but the ball drops onto the bar.
21 mins: A chance for West Ham! And then Kudus hits the bar! “Even if the Liverpool dressing room is currently filled with the aftermath waft of a Scottish fish supper and deep-fried Mars bar, fear not,” writes Justin Kavanagh, “it’ll soon hum with the sweet smell of success.”
A similar attack, but a much better outcome! From Konate’s long pass Salah spins away from Oliver Scarles, runs into space on the right and then spears in one of those outside-of-the-left-foot passes he is so ludicrously good at. Luis Diaz, running in from the left, turns it in!
Goal: Luis Diaz of Liverpool celebrates scoring his team’s first goal with teammates Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones. Photograph: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images
17 mins: Close! Konate lifts the ball over the entire West Ham team to Salah, whose first touch is majestic and from there he inevitably cuts inside and tries to curl a shot towards the far post. It goes just wide.
15 mins: Close! Bradley’s shot from just outside the area flies just wide, presumably deflecting off someone along the way as Liverpool win a corner. They play it short, pass it across the box, and eventually Curtis Jones sends in a 30-yard left-foot shot, not a bad effort with the swinger, straight at Areola.
13 mins: Paqueta slips and clatters into the referee, knocking him over like a skittle. Fortunately for him Andrew Madley chooses not to PaulAlcock the situation.
11 mins: Liverpool pass the ball around their defence for a while, waiting for West Ham to offer them a route into midfield. They refrain from doing so, and eventually a long pass towards Salah is intercepted.
8 mins: The ball is played down the Liverpool right this time, but Salah can’t outpace Max Kilman, who prods it out for a corner, which is cleared.
7 mins: Now Luis Diaz curls in a cross but it’s too low, and Mac Allister has little to no hope of improvising a dangerous header from it. Everything happening through Liverpool’s No7.
6 mins: A bright first few minutes for the home side. Luis Diaz runs down the left again, and this time he cuts inside Wan-Bissaka and sends in a shot, which Areola saves.
4 mins: Good work from Todibo to hold up Luis Diaz on the Liverpool left, and then to toe-poke the ball away from Jota as it ran towards him in the area.
3 mins: The home fans sing Mo Salah’s name. He’s done little of interest so far, but he’s signed a new contract and everyone’s happy about it.
1 min: Peeeeeep! After an immaculately observed silence we finally get under way, West Ham doing the honours.
Before the game, a minute’s silence in memory of the 97 victims of the Hillsborough Disaster, which happened 36 years ago on Tuesday.
YNWA: Aaron Cresswell of West Ham United, observes a moment of silence, after he lays a wreath in tribute to the 97 victims of the Hillsborough disaster, as the 36th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Out come the players! West Ham eschewing the long-sleeved anthemwear that so many teams, including Liverpool, puzzlingly consider de rigeur.
A reader, whose name I can’t discern from their email address so must remain anonymous, reckons they’ve worked out why Liverpool’s players were all out in the corridor: “Robertson let one go in the dressing room; he’s famous for it, and it’s one aspect of his game that hasn’t slipped this year.”
Graham Potter has a chat about what kind of impact he’s had on West Ham:
We’ve stabilised the team. Defensively we were conceding a lost so we’ve made improvements there. We’ve been competitive in all the games, I would say. A couple of bad halves but generally, without being fantastic, we’ve been in games. We need to be better today, because we’re playing against the best team.
In my naivety I really don’t understand how the home team, who have a lovely, private dressing-room to chill out in right there, ends up hanging around in a semi-glorified corridor before they go out and warm up. Nice photo, though.
Mohamed Salah of Liverpool looks on, while waiting for the warm-up prior to he Premier League match against West Ham United. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Team news is in, and here are the names in the frame this afternoon:
Liverpool: Alisson, Bradley, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Jones, Diaz, Jota. Subs: Jaros, Kelleher, Endo, Szoboszlai, Chiesa, Gakpo, Elliott,
Robertson, Quansah.
West Ham: Areola, Todibo, Mavropanos, Kilman, Wan-Bissaka, Soler, Ward-Prowse, Scarles, Kudus, Lucas Paqueta, Bowen. Subs: Fabianski, Coufal, Fullkrug, Luis Guilherme, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Soucek, Emerson Palmieri, Ferguson.
Referee: Andrew Madley.
Three more wins. That is, at most, what Liverpool need to win the league. There are no other games, no cups, no European trips, no internationals, no distractions and no congestion – nine of their last 10 games in all competitions are being played on Sundays, including all of the remaining seven. West Ham’s away record is (very, very marginally) better than their home record (1.125 points per game at home, 1.133 away) but neither is very good and they haven’t been able to sustain an average of more than a point a game for a while: they’ve got two points in their last four, eight in their last eight, 12 in their last 12. In short, they look very unlikely to do anything to derail Liverpool’s title bid. In fact, they haven’t looked as unlikely to win a game since they traipsed miserably to Arsenal in February having won one point in their last four games. Inevitably, football being football, they won.
Here’s Andy Hunter’s mini preview:
It is not a question of who will win the Premier League title but how it will be won: at a canter or with Liverpool testing the anxiety levels of their supporters once again? The answer should become clearer after West Ham’s visit. A catalogue of individual errors resulted in the end of Liverpool’s 26-game unbeaten league run at Fulham last weekend and left Arne Slot’s team still needing 11 points to secure the club’s 20th league championship, although the total will be fewer should Arsenal drop any more points. West Ham, Leicester and Tottenham, Liverpool’s next three opponents, present the more straightforward route to victory than trying to get over the line against Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and Crystal Palace in the final four games of the season. Anfield could be an apprehensive place on Sunday and will be looking to the team’s experienced leaders to get the job almost done.
