Salah and Oxlade-Chamberlain sink West Ham to keep Liverpool rolling on The day is nearing when, if he were so minded, JĆ¼rgen Klopp could copy his strategy for FA Cup replays and hand the rest of Liverpool’s league season to their second string. Games in hand are only an advantage if you win them and this one was ultimately negotiated in comfort, confirming a 19-point lead that only the most wild-eyed fantasist would deem surmountable.
Mohamed Salah scored a first-half penalty and then beautifully set up Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; West Ham at least avoided the four-goal defeat that would have sent them into the bottom three but these clubs could hardly exist in more contrasting states of health.
Klopp was, for this evening at least, unmistakably present and correct although the same could not be said for Sadio ManƩ. The muscle tear sustained at Molineux last Thursday will rule him out until after the winter break; it was the first time this season that the forward had been unavailable for a top-flight fixture and, if West Ham were seeking slivers of encouragement before the toughest assignment of an accursed campaign, this was probably as big a shot in the arm as anyone could offer.
The other note of optimism was, perhaps, the memory of the battling point they took against the same opponents here almost a year ago. The prospect of a draw seemed to be at the forefront of David Moyes’s mind this time; West Ham were essentially set up in a 5-4-1, freshened up slightly with a debut for the 19-year-old right-back Jeremy Ngakia, and they duly emerged with sleeves rolled up.
They were doing admirably enough until, spearing a low spot kick to Lukasz Fabianski’s left with dead-eyed certainty, Salah made the breakthrough.
Liverpool’s near-monopoly on the early possession had yielded little and, until the 33rd minute, West Ham were entitled to feel emboldened. There had been only a couple of significant alarms in their goalmouth before Roberto Firmino, doing well to keep Trent Alexander-Arnold’s near-post cross alive when under pressure, worked space to weigh up a pass across goal.
It was duly threaded to Divock Origi, who had come in for ManĆ©, but the forward still had plenty to do given that Ngakia and Issa Diop both stood in his way. Origi attempted to wriggle between them and was stopped when Diop, wafting out a leg, tripped him on the six-yard line. It seemed needless in such a tight area but Jonathan Moss’s award of a penalty was confirmed at length by VAR, which decided Firmino should not be penalised for what appeared to be a touch with his hand in the buildup.
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